Ahmediyyas: Let Them Be By Irena Akbar Sep 30 2011 I got a tip-off on my phone last Friday from a source who

sent me an SMS about a protest that was about to happen in an hour at the Constitutional Club in Delhi . The message said the protest was against Qadianis and would be led by All India Muslim Personal Law Board member Kamal Farooqui. But what was the protest really about; I messaged him back (since many protests in our democracy are often with out any particular cause). He replied with just the mobile number of Mr Farooqui . So, I dialled Mr Farooqui, introduced myself and asked him about the protest. In a hurried manner, he told me to come to the venue immediately as the Qadianis ar e not real Muslims and are organising some exhibition related to Islam. Even as the real Muslims bit had already, in my mind, partly stripped the protest of its genuineness, I still went ahead to the Constitution Club. To be fair in m y reportage, I first decided to check out the exhibition and see for myself if t here was a case for blasphemy. As soon as I reached the venue, I saw a fairly la rge number of cops manning the gate, but not stopping anyone from walking in. I couldn't find any signs of protest though no crowds, no sloganeering, no placa rds. I walked past the gate, and saw a sign announcing an exhibition of the Qura n, being organised by the Ahmediyya community (Qadianis are also known as Ahmedi yyas; it is a sect of Muslims which is declared non-Muslim in Pakistan and is alle gedly persecuted in Islamic countries such as Iran for their blasphemous interpret ation of the Quran; in secular India, they freely practice their faith). All I know about Qadianis/Ahmediyyas is through Wikipedia. There are just about 2.5 lakh Qadianis in India and I had never met anyone of the community till I wa lked into the exhibition hosted by them. The entrance to the hall, where the exh ibition took place, had large posters that said the Quran and Islam, denounce te rrorism, and advocate peace, unity and humankind. Inside, there were 53 copies o f the Quran all in different languages, from Spanish and Deutsch to Malayalam an d Gujarati displayed neatly. Inside the hall, too, there were posters that talke d again of peace, humanity and women's rights, as preached by the Quran. Exactly what I wanted to see. Forget blasphemous, there was nothing even remotely offensive about the exhibiti on. I spoke to the organisers, and they were pretty soft-spoken, as they explained t o me about their community its population, its reach, and the ongoing Quran tran slation project without a hint of pride in their demeanour. When I asked them wh ether they knew about the protest, they told me they heard about it but chose no t to mouth any objection to it. These people think we are not real Muslims because of a few differences in our in terpretation, is all that Aziz Ahmed, an Ahmediyas representative, said. Outside, Farooqui, and some of his cronies, were waiting, quite obviously, for t he media to arrive. Farooqui was frantically on his phone, even as he started gi ving me juicy, rhetorical soundbytes. Nobody is denying their right to exhibit, b ut why are they calling themselves Muslims, when they are not? They can do anyth ing, but please, they should not call themselves Muslims!

Suddenly, an SUV arrived at the building, and Yahya Bukhari, a relative of Shahi Imam Bukhari, stepped out, thundering, Quran is not a book to be exhibited. We w ill bring lakhs of people here tomorrow, if they don't stop this exhibition! Bukh ari even yelled at a cop, Why are you stopping the protestors? When someone touch es religion, it's like a coffin being out over you! His rhetoric was matched with his animated body language raised fingers, eyes popping out, nostrils flaring e tc. By this time, there were enough shutterbugs and correspondents to capture the me lodrama. Farooqui, Bukhauri, and some 20 other protesters held up placards denou ncing the Qadianis, and posed for the cameras. The next day, I didn't bother to visit the site to see if Farooqui and Bukhari l ived up to their threats. They did, as I read in the papers. Shahi Imam Bukhari came to the spot, made his presence felt as he fed a hungry media with the nutri tion of his fatty sound bytes, got detained, along with 56 other protesters, and yes, the exhibition got prematurely shut. I am not Ahmediyya, I know little of their different beliefs, I may even differ wi th them in their beliefs, but I defend their right to exhibit, their right to sa y they are Muslims or whatever else they wish to call themselves, and their righ t to not be treated in such a shoddy way as I had seen. I had only heard or read about discrimination against them, many a times, dismissing them as exaggerated . On Friday, I was witness to it. Source: Indian Express, New Delhi URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndSectarianism_1.aspx?ArticleID =5838

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COMMENTS 11/10/2011 12:43:49 AM Ghulam Mohiyuddin In my view Mr. Abujaffar's comment is fair and just. Islam is our mazhab, not ou r jaagir. We do not agree with Ahmadis, and we shall resist their efforts to ind octrinate us with their beliefs; otherwise we have no quarrel with them, and we have no objection to their calling themselves Muslims.

11/9/2011 7:16:23 PM Abujaafar Assalam alaikum, The Ahmadis have the right to call themselves Muslims, no one h as the right to stop them, the Holy Prophet came to make people Muslims and we s hould not make them non Muslims, these Mullas are out dated and their minds are filled with mud and cotton wools!! They do not think of their own, despite my di sagreement with the Ahmadis but I do not see no way to persecute them or to slan der them, and I leave the verdict to Allah Himself as none of us has the permiss ion to take any one out of the fold of Islam after he has uttered two shahadats, it is my hope that these Mullas will stop their ancient meaningless buldadash!!

11/5/2011 8:45:52 PM

saima Chohan

"TRUE Muslims" is the term which we Muslims feel proud to use for ourselves. We think by reciting "KALMA-e-TOHEED", we would be given free visa to our final des tination, '(Jannat) but we totally forget "Haqooq-ul-abad".Allah says, "He can f orgive us about Hqooq_ul_Allah, but could not forgive who failed to perform Haqo oq_ul_abad. Our whole stress is on Namaz and Roza, and forces others to do so. I do agree, Qadianis or Ahmediyas do not ome differences but I also agree that if entic version, and preaching others too, as our Mullahs do, with its own version Best regards, Saima fall in the category of Islam, they arr following Quran, with in a very peaceful manner, not of Islam then there is no harm due to s its auth by force in it.

11/5/2011 6:13:44 AM Syed Rizvi Pakistani Wahhabis are running out of enemies, so they have to manufacture some. Drying up the supplies of Hindus and Christians, now they tuned to Ahmadis and S hias; next will be atheists, agnostics, and other progressive thinkers. And afte r that, God knows who.

11/4/2011 1:40:41 PM Ghulam Mohiyuddin The Indian attitude to Ahmadis is on the whole more reasonable than the Pakistan i attitude, but we also have Shahi Imams who are no better than Pakistani mullah s.

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