A 32-year-old man, Tanveer Ahmed, from Bradford in Yorkshire has appeared in court charged with murder of Muslim shopkeeper Asad Shah, who was stabbed to death outside his shop in Glasgow after posting a ‘Happy Easter’ message on Facebook.
Ahmed entered no plea and was remanded in custody pending a further court appearance.
Asad Shah, 40, was found seriously injured in Minard Road in Shawlands at about 9.05pm on 24thMarch. He died in hospital. According to a report in The Times, it was estimated that he had been stabbed 30 times.
Shah’s Facebook message was: “Good Friday and a very happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation.”
Police said his assailants were Muslims and described the incident as “religiously prejudiced”.
According to a BBC report, Asad Shah’s funeral has been held. The service took place at the Ahmadiyya Muslim mosque in the Yorkhill area of the city.
Friends, family and politicians turned out in large numbers for his funeral.
A message on the wall inside the hall at the mosque reads “Love For All, Hatred For None”.
The report quoted Abdul Abid, president of the Ahmadiyya community in Scotland, as saying: “We are sad that a very popular man of our community is not with us anymore. He was a polite, gentle person. We are proud to have had such a wonderful person amongst our community.”
Mansoor Shah, vice president of Ahmadiyya UK, was quoted in the report as saying: “I have been to Pollokshields this morning and I saw the bunches of flowers and I met a couple of neighbours down there and it was very moving. We are the Islamic community and we do not believe in any kind of extremism. We must live in this country as law-abiding citizens. We are glad that the people of Scotland have come together. And shared their views with us and stood behind us. And we are extremely grateful to all the people of Scotland for having shown this solidarity.”
Lawyer Aamer Anwar said: “There has to be a legacy of Asad Shah. This city has seen sectarian strife for over 150 years. We need to make sure that we don’t import the politics of hatred, of sectarianism from Pakistan into our communities and to our streets. Anybody who attended the vigil, anybody that attended the funeral today of Asad Shah would know that Asad Shah was a well-loved man. We can’t have another life lost to such hatred.”
However, according to a report in The Times, supporters of a sectarian group have celebrated the murder of Shah. A group on Facebook posted a newspaper report of the death of Shah with the message: “Congratulations to all Muslims.” The group calls itself “anti-qadiani” – using a derogatory term for Ahmadiyya Islam.
Ahmadi Muslims, who preach “love for all, hatred for none” believe that Mohammed was not the final prophet, and follow Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the second coming of Jesus Christ. The sect, which originated in Pakistan, has long been marginalised by some orthodox Muslims. The private Facebook page that published the celebration of Shah’s death, titled Anti Qadianiat (Tahafuz Khatme Nubuwwat), has 13,000 members. It professes support for the organisation Khatme Nubuwwat, which states as its purpose: “To educate to the Muslim ummah (faith) to disassociate Qadiani beliefs from Islam.”
Basharat Nazir, a spokesman for Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK, told The Times that fears of sectarianism had existed since opposition to Ahmadi Muslims became more prevalent in Pakistan.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has faced decades of persecution in Pakistan where extremists preached hate against the community and the Pakistan Government's failure to rein in the terrorists has seen such hate increase and target other communities as well.
Rafiq Hayat, National President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK, was quoted on benzinga.com as saying: “The horrific killing of Mr Shah is heart wrenching. We have been warning about the signs of hate being preached in the UK for many years and our concern is that if left unchecked it will grow and destroy the harmony of our society. There must be no tolerance of intolerance and all leaders at every level of society and in all spheres of life must take a principled stand against such extremism. It must not be acceptable to turn a blind eye to the promotion of hate by labelling people apostates and deeming them to be worthy of death simply because you have different beliefs or understandings.
“We have seen such hate and prejudice surface against our community on satellite television in the UK, in mosques, schools and even in local government. We are a peace loving community and will never strike back, for Islam teaches us to pray and persevere if we are to achieve lasting peace. However, in Pakistan we have seen how extremism spreads from targeting and killing Ahmadis to targeting and killing others, as evidenced by deadly attack on Christians in Lahore this Easter Sunday, and this must not be allowed to happen here.
“People must have freedom of religion and belief, and whilst there can and should be debates there must be no room for coercion or violence.”
Shah was born in Rabwah, Pakistan, and moved to Glasgow in 1998 to join his father in business.
Meanwhile, lawyer Aamer Anwar has received death threats over his calls for unity in the Islamic community following the killing of Shah.
According to a Daily Mail report, Aamer Anwar said he was taking the threats extremely seriously and police were investigating.
Anwar chaired an event at Glasgow Central Mosque last week where he called for unity and condemned violence and extremism in the wake of the killing of Shah, as well as terror attacks in Brussels and Lahore.
