The protection of minority rights is an important measure of a decent society; though this is always a negotiated position that needs to be reached between the various minority groups and the majority.
Beyond this incrementally negotiated status quo that emerges in a multicultural society or internationally within a vision of cosmopolitanism, to accept claims by states that they intervene within their own or foreign societies to preserve universal rights would be naïve. History reveals how European powers of the 19th and early 20th century would often invoke the minority rights of various Christian communities as a pretext to applying military and diplomatic pressure on the Ottomans. In the post-modern information age international and national powers seek to undermine Islam through claims of universal values intended to reform and undermine Muslim identity.
An exhibition at the Constitution Club in the Indian capital, Delhi, on the 24th of September by the Ahmadiyya movement - a religious group that emerged in 1889 and in its inception was closely embedded with British rule in India to contain the perceived Muslim threat - is a direct provocation of Muslim sentiments. A core tenet of the Islamic belief is the finality of the last Prophet Muhammad (SAW). This demarcates Muslim identity and the Ahmadiyya movement is based on beliefs which are outside this core tenet.
For the Ahmadiyyas to exhibit the Quran, the revealed text of Islam, and for them to appropriate the Quran is an attempt to provoke Muslim sentiments. Though such provocations have become the norm rather than an exception since the events of 9/11, the need to counter these attempts is required to resist the decline towards an entrenched Islamophobia that has gripped the world in an unfolding meta-narrative.
In anticipation of readers thinking that this is a case of intolerance, I will also make it clear at this point that the objection being made here is the claim by Ahmadiyyas that they are Muslim after believing in a prophet after Muhammad (SAW) and also to then appropriate the Quran to their movement.
In the words of Maulana Habibur Rahman Ludhyanvi, Shahi Imam of Punjab:
"We have many times said that the Qadyanis are not Muslims. They don’t believe in Prophet Muhammad and even in the oneness of Allah then how we will tolerate them. If the Qadyani want to do any program in India they should do it on the name of his false prophet Mirza Qadyani. We will not give them permission to use the name of Islam."
The Maulana has articulated the basic objection well; that attempts to use the name of Islam while undermining its beliefs is a question of provocation and an attack on Muslim sentiments. Invoking minority rights in this case is a cynical attempt to present a smokescreen to obscure the motives of the Congress Party and NGOs which sponsored this event.
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