The Tragedy of a Muslim Well-Wisher

"GOOD FRIDAY AND VERY HAPPY EASTER ESPECIALLY TO MY BELOVED CHRISTIAN NATION!"
"Let's Follow The Real Footstep of Beloved Holy JESUS CHRIST (PBUH) And Get The Real Success In Both Worlds."
Asad Shah, Glasgow shopkeeper

Image caption Asad Shah died after being found badly injured near his shop in the Shawlands area of Glasgow last Thursday -- BBC News

"You could be any colour, that would not be an issue for him, he just cared too much."
"He would want to know how are  you, what are you doing. He took an interest in everyone's lives -- old, young, anyone."
Aleesa Malik, 17, Glaswegian

"People are really shocked and very, very distressed that something like this has happened. After this event, our message is that everyone should keep calm and try to get together in recognition of being human beings."
Salah Beltagui, director, Muslim Council of Scotland

"We have been advised by police not talk about it, particularly about our names and locations, because there is a security threat."
"Actually, we cannot describe what we are going through. We are heartbroken."
Family member of Asad Shah

People took part in a silent vigil in memory of Mr Shah on Friday evening -- BBC News

The good-natured and popular shopkeeper whom everyone who knew him now mourns appears to have been one of those optimists who believe that good things will always trump the bad in the world. And he was of the mindset that people owed courtesy and kindness to one another in reflection of the fact that, as the director of the Muslim Council of Scotland said, we are all human beings. Mr. Shah was a Muslim, but of a minority sect.

The Ahmadiyya community of the Islamic ummah is considered to be apostates, insults to Islam and its traditions, by the greater majority of Muslims comprised of the Sunni and Shia factions representing the allegiance of most of the estimated 1.3-billion Muslims in the world. The Sunnis account for about 3/4 of Muslim membership, while the Shia accounts for roughly the fourth quarter, while much smaller numbers are comprised of minority sects.

What is constant, however, in the world of Islam, is the contempt which each of the sects regard each other with, a contempt that goes beyond mere slander one of the other, incorporating the rage of hatred and incitement to violence. Islam has always been a religion of violence, since its sacred Koran speaks in the voice of the Prophet Mohammad who wrote the template, guided by Allah of Islamic proselytizing, rooted in the violence of conquest.

In Koranic explications written by succeeding scholars interpreting the original for inner significance, non-Muslims are inferior to Muslims, and their religions are false ones, whose existence enrages Allah. Anything that enrages Allah does likewise with his followers, evidenced in the mass rage that overtakes fundamentalist Islamists when they believe that non-Muslims have insulted the Prophet or Islam or done harm to a Koran.

The Ahmadiyya community within Islam appears to be separate and apart from those who despise them in that they really do believe in peace and practise living alongside others with respect and in harmonious relations. Mr. Shah's message of brotherhood and appreciation marked him for death. A 32-year-old Muslim man has been arrested and charged with his murder. The tolerance that the Ahmadiyya express is not universally shared in the ummah.

In Pakistan, where Mr. Shah emigrated from to Scotland, the Ahmadiyya are repressed and vulnerable to danger, just as Pakistani Christians are. Tens of thousands of Pakistani Islamists recently rampaged through Islamabad in anger that an assassin of a provincial governor -- who defended a Christian woman on charges of blasphemy -- was hanged for his crime. Those Islamists insist on the enactment of Sharia law, inextricably tied to Islam, be imposed and the woman, Asia Bibi, be put to death.

The light-hearted, kindly Ahmadiyya Muslim Asad Shah offended the sensibilities of mainstream Islam when he deferred happily to Christians during Easter, wishing them a happy holiday. The recognized laws of Islam assured his death because heretics are not countenanced in Islam, the solution for their impious assault on Islamic values is death.

(AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)    Protesters from Pakistan's Sunni Tehreek group chant slogans during a sit-in near the parliament building in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, March 29, 2016.