Pakistan envoy to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi on Sunday tweeted about Mahershala Ali, winning the best-supporting-actor Oscar becoming the first Muslim ever to take the prestigious award home.
However, Ali, a Muslim convert since 1999, joined the minority Ahmadiyya Community.
Maleeha came under fire for promoting Ali, an Ahmadi, who are considered non-Muslims in Pakistan.
She later deleted her tweet as a response to all the criticism.
Pakistani ambassador to the UN RTed then deleted a tweet calling Mahershala Ali the first Muslim actor to win an oscar. #Oscars https://t.co/E3rPjIbtiQ
— Zainab Imam (@zainabimam) February 27, 2017
Ahmadis are considered as non-Muslims by law in Pakistan and have been persecuted over the years for being Kafirs or heretics. The group has been deprived of religious rights under the Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan.
Article 260-3 of Pakistan’s Constitution declares Ahmadis “non-Muslims”. The amendment made this exclusion legally in that the phrase “for the purposes of the constitution or law” was used when rendering them non-Muslims.
