Pakistan and Israel, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Jews
July 12, 2012
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Qaid e Azam
The year 1947 was a tumultuous one. In that year, British India became independent, splitting into India, a state in which Hinduism was culturally dominant, and Pakistan, which was founded as a state for Muslims.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, reverently referred to by Pakistanis as Qaid e Azam (The Great Leader), believed, as did many Muslims in British India, that Muslims in India would be dominated and oppressed in a country in which they would be a minority. The establishment of Pakistan on August 14, 1947 was accompanied by bloody and turbulent cross migrations of Muslims from India to Pakistan, and Hindus from Pakistan to India. The foundation of two modern states caused mass displacement, with an estimated 14 million people uprooted and sent to places in “their” new country that were entirely foreign to them. The death toll of this bloody chapter in Indo Pakistani history is a subject of much contention, with a consensus figure of 500,000 dead commonly used.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the first leader of Pakistan, had a vision for Pakistan of it being a lountry in which Muslims would be numerically and culturally dominant. Despite this, he promoted a vision of Pakistan in which all faith communities in Pakistan would enjoy complete civic equality. In his famous speech of August 11, 1947, Jinnah stated as follows.
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