He would have been respected even in Pakistan. Abdus Salam is a different case, Ahmadis are not considered Muslims in Pakistan this is not the case with Dr. Abdul Kamal or any Muslim in India.
I'd respond this one last time so as not to derail the discussion thru a digression .
The Ahmediyya were always considered not part of the mainstream Muslim community since their formation. However , they were at the forefront of the Pakistan movement . Their moment of truth arrived in 1953 where after the Anti Ahmeddiya riots in what was then West Pakistan , they were eventually declared to be non Muslims by the Zia regime in the mid 80's.
The situation as of today is that every elected official has to swear by the Khatm e Nabuwwat clause I.e sworn declaration on the finality that the Prophet Mohammed was the last Prophet .
How can you even suggest that an APJ Abdul Kalam who rarely if ever offered namaz , never paid zakat or observed Ramzan or even made the Haj ( precisely the points that the article I've posted declares ) - all central tenets of Islam be even considered for such a post . Why , someone as devout as Abdus Salaam who observed all these rituals eventually had his gravestone defaced only coz he was an Ahmeddiya.
The only exception to this was Jinnah. Incidentally , there's an active lobby out there which seeks to revise history by altering his roots ( he's a Nizari Ismaili - a sect of a sect if a sect ( Shia )) by stressing his Sunni origins . He was a non observant Muslim too but identified himself as culturally a Muslim . I don't need to add the role be played in getting the Muslims of SA their homeland which is why he's still revered there .
Almost 90% maybe more Muslims don't worship 5 times a day, calling Dr Abdul Kalam on it is ludicrous and contains no merit.
I've answered this above . Not offering the occasional namaz and not offering it at all are two different things .
Really! That's a news to me, how did you arrive to that conclusion? So far I have not met a single Muslim that lacks respect for him. If there one or two people here and there you found they don't speak for whole Muslim community.
Please disclose this to your Muslim friends & acquaintances and check for yourself how many are aware of these facts .You'd be met with denial or on verification , the disclosure that he's not a Muslim.
You'd be able to count the no of Muslims to whom this disclosure doesn't diminish in any way his achievements , on your fingers. This has more to do with the illiberalism pervading the Islamic world - their conditioning on account of this all pervading illiberalism bordering on fanaticism and colouring their thoughts more than anything else .
You people are defending something that can't be defended by twisting the logic, you don't need to do that. Vstol generalized something about every Muslim without thinking too much, the best thing is to rectify it and move on instead of applying new new logic to justify it.
I understand bashing something we don't like feels so good but it should be done on reality and not on made up notions.
If the sole purpose is to win the argument than we are wasting time here at least I am.