Hazrat Ahmad — Page 41
HADHRAT AHMAD 41 to his Excellency Lord Elgin, the Viceroy of India, a memorial, which was also printed and publicly circulated, in which he explained to the Viceroy that religious disputes and conflicts were at the root of most disorders and troubles. Religious conflicts created an excitement in the public mind, and mischief mongers took advantage of it and used it against the State. The Promised. Messiah, therefore, suggested that the use of abusive and provocative language in religious controversies and discussions should be brought within the range of the law and proposed three means to that end. 1. That the law, while leaving the followers of every religion free to proclaim and expound the excellences of their faith, should restrain them from attacking any rival faith. Such a law would leave intact religious freedom and would be free from the charge of showing undue favor to any particular faith. Nor could it give offense to a follower of any faith, refusing him the liberty to attack a rival faith. 2. If the above proposal could not be accepted, then it might be forbidden to raise an objection against a rival faith which could equally be raised against one's own; in other words, it should not be permissible to adduce against a rival faith matters which formed part of one's own creed. 3. If the second proposal was found impracticable, an alternative was was suggested that the Government should, in consultation with each community, prepare a list of the authoritative books of its creed, and forbid anyone to raise any objection against the creed save on the basis of the accepted books. . When objections are based upon uninformed opinions and baseless stories which are subscribed to by the followers of a creed, the only possible consequence is an increase of rancor and animosity. . If these suggestion had been adopted by the Government at that time the disorder and trouble which occurred in later years could have been forestalled. But at that time Government did not appreciate the need for any such law and its advisors failed to notice the increasing spread of the germs the early activities of which had caught the attention of the prophet of the time. But after the lapse of a full ten years, in 1908, the Government had to pass a law forbidding the followers of one faith from attacking or using