Murder in the Name of Allah — Page vii
INTRODUCTION. It was in the late 1950s that the original work in Urdu on which the present book is based was first undertaken. This rendering of it into. English is now being offered for the benefit of English-speaking readers. The original book was published under the title Mazhab ke. Nam par Khoon, literally translated as 'Bloodshed in the Name of. Religion'. Since then numerous editions have been printed, and it has also been translated into Bengali and Indonesian. . The main source of Mazhab ke Nam per Khoon was the wide-scale and most violent anti-Ahmadiyyah riots of 1953 in Pakistan. The riots were long over by the time the book was written; the wounds were almost healed, leaving some slowly fading scars behind. . But the issues those riots raised continued to live undiminished and undiluted. Is Islam a religion of war or of peace? Does Islam advocate violence, bloodshed, destruction and disorder? Does it condone persecution in any form? Does it give licence for loot, arson and murder on the pretext of doctrinal differences within Islam or vis-à-vis other faiths?. The book was written, therefore, not with the purpose of highlighting or resurrecting the dead and buried events of 1953, but in order to address the issues raised thereby, some of which have been mentioned above. The suffering, misery and turbulence of 1953 can be relegated to the past, of course, but the issues raised at that time continue to be of relevance and significance today. They are not confined to Pakistan or to Islam. . They give rise to timeless universal questions relating to every religion: matters of peace and war, order and chaos, and the defence and suppression of fundamental human rights. . In view of the importance of this subject, there had been a growing demand to make Mazhab ke Nam per Khoon available to a much wider readership than those using the Urdu, Bengali and Indonesian languages. . For some years, Syed Barakat Ahmad was pressing me for permission to translate my book. Syed Barakat Ahmad had a doctorate in Arab history (from the American University of Beirut) and literature (from the. University of Tehran). He served in the Indian diplomatic service and viii