News

The best legacy we can leave Asad Shah is to take sectarian hate crime seriously

28 March 2016

EFD Fellow Tehmnina Kazi elaborates on the murder of Asad Shah, a British Muslim killed for belonging to the Ahmadiyya community, considered heretic.
Kazi argues that the Muslim communities' reaction to this horrible hate crime is either absent or ambiguous. For instance, although the Glasgow Central Mosque released a statement condemning the murder, its most senior imam expressed "pain" for the Pakistani condemnation of the "true Muslim" who had killed anti-blasphemy law campaigner Salman Taseer in 2011. Moreover, other Muslim groups have openly praised the attack against Shah. Kazi concludes that "the best legacy we can leave Asad Shah is to take sectarian hate crime as seriously as Far Right attacks on Muslims, and to follow in his footsteps of spreading goodwill to all".

The article is in English and can be read here.