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2012-01-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

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Pakistan: Harassed, Christian activist says he fears death at police’s hand

2012-01-28T14:00:00.001-08:00

Behram Francis, the National Coordinator for the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of Pakistan demanded that Waseem Shakir be protected.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Asad Kharal | January 28, 2012

The reason: he initiated legal proceedings against the police for making derogatory remarks about his religion.

LAHORE: A Christian human rights activist fears he may be killed for standing up to the police.

Waseem Shakir – a district coordinator for minority affairs for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Kot Addu, Muzaffargarh – says that he might be targeted in an ‘encounter’. The reason: he has initiated legal proceedings against the police for making derogatory remarks about his religion.

Two of his associates have also filed independent petitions alleging harassment against the police.

Waseem Shakir says that ASI Riaz had contacted his younger brother Faheem Masih and asked him to convince Shakir to withdraw the petition against the police. Riaz, Shakir alleges, told his brother that Shakir would be killed in an encounter if he did not withdraw his complaint. Shakir says that two Special Branch officials had contacted him and pressured him to withdraw the petition. “They threatened me dire consequences if I did not and gave examples of Human Rights activists being killed across the country,” says Shakir. Shakir’s complaint states that on December 31, 2011 Shakir, Javed Iqbal and Sajjad Ahmed were stopped at the Kot Addu bypass by six policemen. The petition identifies two of the men as Inspector Muhammad Akbar and Assistant Sub Inspector Riaz Bhatti.

Bhatti is alleged to have said that considering the car belonged to a Christian it should be searched thoroughly. He is also alleged to have detained them for two hours. Shakir says claim the policemen abused their religion during that time.

On January 3, the Kot Addu police registered an FIR against Shakir, Tariq Masih, Gul Muhammad Bhatti , Ahtisham Khurram Masih, Sehat Masih and Khalid accusing them of attacking the police. Police say that they tried to arrest Tariq Masih and Shahid Masih for bootlegging but they opened fire on the police party. According to the FIR the raiding policemen was also beaten up.

Shakir says the judge hearing the case had found it remarkable that not one policeman was injured in the shooting.

The Kot Addu Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Asadullah Khan denied the allegations levelled by Shakir, adding that the police were not threatening him or anybody involved in any way.

Behram Francis, the National Coordinator for the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of Pakistan demanded that Waseem Shakir be protected. “Police is supposed to protect all Pakistani citizens without discrimination,” he said. He asked the chief minister and the Chief Justice of Supreme Court to intervene.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th, 2012.

Read original post here: Harassment: Christian activist says he fears death at police’s hand

Holy bans only | Daily Dawn Pakistan | by Murtaza Razvi

2012-01-28T14:00:00.000-08:00

The magistrate in Rabwah, Punjab, now rechristened as Chenab Nagar just to spite the majority Ahmadi community residents there, keeps renewing the ban on Ahmadis’ religious congregations month after month and year after year.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Daily Dawn | Pakistan
By Murtaza Razvi | January 27, 2012

While in a Karachi park a frenzied, self-righteous TV show host chased couples out on a date filming them without their consent last week, in Lahore the Punjab assembly passed a resolution seeking a blanket ban on the holding of music concerts in educational institutions. Both are despicable acts of moral policing in a country which offers youngsters very few opportunities to mingle. What’s next, you may well ask.

This ban thing is a nasty, rather selective business. Banning music concerts comes in the wake of a terrible accident, in which three college girls were crushed to death after a stampede ensued at a concert held recently at Lahore’s Al Hamra complex. The failure to curb rowdiness now brings on this preposterous suggestion to ban all concerts by educational institutions, whilst the rest, with a similar young audience in attendance can still go on. Bizarre but true.

Then, look at Basant. The age-old spring kite-flying festival was banned in Punjab in 2008 under court orders after the authorities failed to curb the use of killer twine. For years on end the festival was termed as an aberration in this Islamic republic, having its roots in Hindu culture, as preached by the bearded brigade. So it had to go, and not just the stray killer twine that cut the bikers’ throats.

The authorities have also banned one-wheeling on motorbikes in Lahore, but it continues to claim lives, especially on Independence Day when bikers in huge numbers take to the streets, driving rashly after having removed their bikes’ silencers. Do we ban Independence Day celebrations because we cannot control the dangerous sport?

Then, there is this deafening firing on New Year’s Eve in Karachi, which also results in loss of life; the authorities have responded by banning the celebrations and by sealing off the beach front. But they have failed to curb aerial firing which continues with a vengeance. Weddings too continue with free aerial firing as part of the festivities; logic dictates that weddings should also be banned because the people will not mend their ways. Road accidents too claim the highest number of casualties in Pakistan than anywhere else in the region, and the police have failed to bring down the number of fatalities. What do we do? Ban driving as well?

How about the Muharram processions and other gatherings by religious outfits and madressahs? They too have been attacked by rival extremist groups, as have been Friday prayer congregations, and resulted in many fatalities. Do we ban all such gatherings? The Taliban have been blowing up girls’ schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; should we put a ban on girls’ schooling, as the Taliban wish we do?

Why then single out New Year’s Eve celebrations, Basant and now music concerts by educational institutions?

A church in a Karachi suburb was attacked by Muslim extremists over Christmas and the celebrations were called off in the entire area by Christians under pressure; this too amounted to a ban being placed on their worship by sheer social pressure. No court, from the lowest to the highest in the land, took half as much interest in the incident as they did, say, in Basant.

The magistrate in Rabwah, Punjab, now rechristened as Chenab Nagar just to spite the majority Ahmadi community residents there, keeps renewing the ban on Ahmadis’ religious congregations month after month and year after year. There is legislation on the statute books that systematically discriminates against Ahmadis, and no one finds anything wrong with this witch hunt. No righteous judge finds this ungodly act a breach of the basic freedom of citizens to practise their faith as guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan.

Why must we be condemned to live in a land of selective bans? Bans that state institutions and pressure groups impose with complete impunity. Such questions need to be asked, and answers demanded.

The writer is a member of the staff at Dawn Newspaper.

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Canada: Muslim appointed to human rights post

2012-01-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

"Mr. Malik will make an important contribution to our discussions and deliberations, particularly given his community roots, cultural background and his experience as a newcomer to Canada."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The StarPhoenix
By The StarPhoenix | January 26, 201

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission has a new commissioner.

Nasser Malik, who immigrated to Canada 25 years ago from Pakistan with his family, has been appointed to a five-year term. He has lived in Saskatoon since 2007 and works as a supervisor at PotashCorp's Cory mine.

He also volunteers at Saskatoon's Ahmadiyya Muslim community, a movement that spans 190 countries and promotes tolerance and peace.

"Mr. Malik will make an important contribution to our discussions and deliberations, particularly given his community roots, cultural background and his experience as a newcomer to Canada," David Arnot, chief commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, says in a news release.

Malik holds a degree in applied science and engineering from the University of Toronto and various profession certifications.

He joins Paul Favel, Jan Caitlin and Barry Wilcox, who were appointed to the commission in June, and Mike Bacon, who was appointed in 2009.

© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

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Indonesia: ‘Controversial religious affairs minister must go’

2012-01-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

“After an attack on Ahmadis in Cikeusik, Banten, in February last year, we warned that similar actions may be carried out against followers of Shiite and Baha’i because these religious groups are not considered part of mainstream Islam in Indonesia.”

Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Post
By TJP | January 28, 2011

Rights activists and religious leaders have urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to dismiss Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali for his frequent statements that could fuel persecution against minority groups in the country.

“Suryadharma doesn’t deserve the post because he has encouraged discrimination against Shiite by saying that the sect is heretical. As a minister, he speaks on behalf of the government, and his statement could be taken to indicate that the government legitimizes violations against Shiite [followers],” said Setara Institute chairman Hendardi on Friday.

Suryadharma, who also chairs the Muslim-oriented United Development Party (PPP), said after a meeting with the House of Representatives’ Commission VIII overseeing religion, that the Shiite branch of Islam was heretical because it deviated from the main Islamic teachings.

Iranian Ambassador to Indonesia Mahmoud Farazandeh said that he expected to hold a meeting with Suryadharma to clarify his statement.

“I haven’t heard anything from him directly so I don’t know what he meant. I must see him first and listen to his explanation before commenting on his statement,” he said.

Shiite is the official state religion of Iran, subscribed to by almost 95 percent of the population, while Indonesia is the world’s most populous Sunni Muslim majority country.

Noted Muslim intellectual Azyumardi Azra said that Suryadharma’s statement only added to the already numerous burdens shouldered by the Yudhoyono administration.

“The minister has encouraged radicalism. The statement can be used as an excuse by Sunnis, whose form of Islam was introduced by the Wahabbis from Saudi Arabia, to use violence against Shiites,” he said.

The Setara Institute and other rights groups had called upon Yudhoyono to replace Suryadharma in the period leading up to the recent Cabinet reshuffle last year, because of his ill-informed comments on minority groups.

Previously, Suryadharma had made similar accusations about the Islamic Ahmadiyah sect, which he also deemed heretical, and called on Ahmadis to return to the true teachings of Islam.

Setara researcher Ismail Hasani said the public could be forgiven for thinking that Suryadharma was targeting minority groups in the country.

He predicted that the Baha’i branch of Islam could be next.

“After an attack on Ahmadis in Cikeusik, Banten, in February last year, we warned that similar actions may be carried out against followers of Shiite and Baha’i because these religious groups are not considered part of mainstream Islam in Indonesia,” he said.

Ismail said that Yudhoyono’s government should issue a statement to refute Suryadharma’s statement.

“The government must immediately make a statement to counter the minister’s comments; otherwise, the public will believe that Suryadharma spoke out on behalf of the state,” Ismail said

In late-December last year, Sunni followers burned down a Shiite compound in Karang Gayam, Madura; an attack believed to have been orchestrated to drive the Shiite community out of the village.

Earlier in 2010, Syahroni, a leader of a Baha’i community in Lampung Timur, Lampung, was jailed on criminal charges of teaching and proselytizing Muslim children in the neighborhood. (msa)

Read original post here: ‘Controversial religious affairs minister must go’

British Museum exhibit offers visitors a chance to experience Muslim pilgrimage

2012-01-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

As pilgrimages go, it is not the largest in scale, but it certainly has the most diverse group of participants –bringing together people from over 180 nationalities last year.

Photo: British Museum

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Common Ground News Service
By Shelina Zahra Janmohamed | 24 January 2012

London - Qaisra Khan and I are standing in the Round Reading Room of the world-renowned British Museum in London. Around us people are busy installing historic artefacts from the Muslim world relating to the haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca – a principal religious obligation of adult Muslims.

Khan is one of the curators of the exhibit “Hajj: Journey to the heart of Islam”, which will open on the 26th of January at the British Museum. She is visibly excited that those who are not Muslim will finally get to vicariously experience the pilgrimage through this pioneering exhibit. Relics painstakingly gathered from public and private collections from the UK, Saudi Arabia and other parts of the world are on display. Loans from Saudi Arabia include a seetanah, an embroidered cloth that parts in the middle to allow entry into the Kaaba itself when being used. The reds and blues which surround the stitched Arabic calligraphy highlight the richness of the Qur’anic text that adorns the cloth.

The exhibit offers the opportunity to hear about both contemporary and historic pilgrim experiences. My eye is caught by an original map identifying the possible routes for the Hijaz Railway, which was planned by the Ottoman official Haji Mukhtar Bey during his own haj.

On the other side of the hall is a brightly coloured, almost cartoonish image of a group of people. Among them is a pilgrim, standing on the edge of a sandy plane surrounded by intense blue. It is a painting from southern Egypt, where for hundreds of years members of small villages have painted these images to depict the departure of the pilgrims.

When it comes to Muslims, Khan says, "All we hear about is ‘sharia’, and actually this is one of the few times when there is none of that – it's just about what it is like to be Muslim." Her aspiration is that visitors will be granted this experience.

It is a profound sentiment and one which calls for further reflection: What does it feel like to stand in someone else’s shoes and experience the world from their perspective?

The haj is a primary instance of creating connections with other people by sharing space and time with them. As pilgrimages go, it is not the largest in scale, but it certainly has the most diverse group of participants –bringing together people from over 180 nationalities last year.

Amongst the historic artefacts in the exhibit is a 15th century painting from Shiraz (in modern day Iran) which depicts a throng of people inside the haram, or holy sanctuary, in Mecca. The artist has depicted a sea of humanity with skin tones from black to white and every shade in between.

On the other side of the hall is a photograph from 2009 showing contemporary pilgrims at the desert of Arafat where pilgrims journey for forgiveness. Again, the faces are a portrait of humanity, joined together in their single quest for forgiveness, united by the same simple white clothing, all external differences erased. Any pilgrim who joins can’t help but get to know those from different countries and cultures and in turn be changed by the realisation of their shared humanity.

The British Museum’s haj exhibition attempts to recreate this intense experience by sharing it with a wide audience.

Such co-sharing of space and time is crucial to our development of empathy, and triggers an instinctive willingness to help others. The event of haj is an epic experience, but taking action to create empathy is something that happens on a day-to-day level too. We human beings can create this kind of empathy by supporting others in what they feel is important.

I have seen this in action at a mosque in London, which organised for its congregation to attend midnight mass at Christmas to create bonds with the local Christian community. And when I was living and working in Bahrain, I saw Sunni Muslims show their support and understanding when Shia Muslims commemorated Ashura, a ritual day of mourning, by sending food so that their Shia friends would not be detained by chores on a day of great importance to them.

Sharing experiences is vital to creating emotional bonds and support. Although this exhibition is a historic and cultural enterprise, and refreshingly apolitical, it offers visitors – Muslim or non-Muslim alike – the chance to stand in someone else’s shoes for a moment. And that is something, in our world of unfortunate divisions, which is always to be welcomed.

###

* Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and blogs at www.spirit21.co.uk.

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Pakistan: Violence against Ahmadis looms in Rawalpindi, government proposes they cease worship

2012-01-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

The move by the government clearly shows how the helpless authorities are controlled by the militants that they are passing the militants’ demands to the Ahmadiyya community.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times
By Staff Reporter | January 28, 2012

The government officials have advised the members of the Rawalpindi Ahmadiyya community to stop praying at the Satellite Town Ahmadiyya center, Ewan-e Touheed.

Known terrorist, joined by the extremists and militants elements of Pakistan demand that Ahmadis should cease their all worship activities at the Satellite Town Ahmadiyya center.

The Satellite Town area has been inundated with anti-Ahmadiyya signs and banners in advance of the massive rally called by the militants groups to force-stop Ahmadis from their worship activities.

The government officials say that in order to avoid unpleasant situation in Rawalpindi during anti-Ahmadiyya rally on the 29th January, Ahmadis should not offer Namaz and Juma prayers [Ahmadi Muslim acts of worship] at their center.

"The state has decided which side it is going to take," said a representative of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community disappointedly about the deteriorating safety conditions for Ahmadi members in Rawalpindi a major town near Pakistan’s capital Islamabad..

Ahmadis say this is an old tactic used against them in Pakistan to pressurize them. “This is to make us yield while the militants are given a free hand to break the law.”

"How we being peaceful and law abiding can stop praying to Allah?," the community represented asked. "How can we bend down in front of militants and compromise on our duty to Almighty?"

The move by the government clearly shows how the helpless authorities are controlled by the militants that they are passing the militants’ demands to the Ahmadiyya community.

These are the same demands mullahs have been making for days, say the Ahmadis, and now the government is towing into their demands.

"This shows lack of control," the Ahmadiyya representative said highlighting the government’s impotence.

The Ahmadiyya community demanded the government “to do its duty and provide the security to perform their religious duties.”

"This is our uncompromisable right," the community asserted.

-- Pakistan: Government proposes Ahmadis cease worship, heed militants demands
-- Violence against Ahmadis looms in Rawalpindi, government proposes they cease worship
-- Ahmadiyya Times
-- Edited by Imran Jattala

Gambia: D1.2 Million Mosque Foundation Stone Laid in Farafenni

2012-01-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

For his part, Baba Trawally said building of mosques is one of the objectives of the Ahmadiyya Mission in The Gambia. He added that the mission has also built many other mosques, schools and hospitals as part of their obligations in promoting Islam and to help the needy.

File photo: Gambia Ahmadiyya Muslim convention

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Daily Observer (Banjul)
By Alhagie Babou Jallow | 27 January 2012

Nbr — The Amir of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamat in The Gambia, Baba F. Trawally, last Saturday laid the foundation stone of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat's mosque worth D1.2M in Farafenni Wharf Town, opposite the Farafenni Senior Secondary School. The Amir also inaugurated a new library for the Ahmadiyya at the same place in Farafenni, North Bank Region.

Speaking at the occasion, Osutas Hifazat Ahmad Naveed, the Area Missionary for the North Bank Region, expressed gratitude to the people of Farafenni for their support. He also thanked the government of The Gambia for giving them the opportunity to build mosques to enable their members and people of the area have easy access for their daily prayers.

For his part, Baba Trawally said building of mosques is one of the objectives of the Ahmadiyya Mission in The Gambia. He added that the mission has also built many other mosques, schools and hospitals as part of their obligations in promoting Islam and to help the needy.
He revealed that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat is now present in 200 hundred countries around the world. He commended the government of The Gambia for providing the conducive environment for them to practice their religion in their own way.

Amir Trawally also called on parents to send their children to Arabic schools to promote the teaching and learning of Islam. The alkalo of Farafenni, Lang Suruwa Dibba, thanked the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat for their immense contribution to the socio-economic development of the country.

-- Via AllAfrica.Com

Read original post here: Gambia: D1.2 Million Mosque Foundation Stone Laid in Farafenni

USA: Nearly 1,500 NYPD officers shown anti-Islam documentary 'The Third Jihad'

2012-01-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

Today's news comes after the NYU Law School's Brennan Center for Justice filed a Freedom of Information Law request for information about the film, and the NYPD was forced to release confidential internal documents.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Metro | News
By Carly Baldwin | January 24, 2012

The NYPD denied for more than a year that it showed its new recruits a controversial documentary about Islam, but today, The New York Times reports that nearly 1,500 officers were exposed to the film.

"The Third Jihad" is narrated by Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim man who expressed outrage that, he says, few American Muslims were speaking out and condemning the 9/11 attacks.

“This is the true agenda of much of Islam in America,” Jasser says in the film. “A strategy to infiltrate and dominate America. We all know about terrorism ... This is the war you don’t know about.”

When news first broke last year that the NYPD was showing the film, top police officials said it was only shown "a couple of times."

But "The Third Jihad" was actually played on continuous loop over a period of between three months and one year, the Times reports today, according to internal police documents. The film was shown during "during the sign-in, medical and administrative orientation process" for new officers, according to the Times.

Muslim groups in New York are outraged at what they call a "propaganda" video. The Council on American-Islamic relations today asked for a review of all NYPD training on Islam and for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly to meet with Muslim community leaders. An interview with Kelly is included in the film, as well as interviews with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman.

Today's news comes after the NYU Law School's Brennan Center for Justice filed a Freedom of Information Law request for information about the film, and the NYPD was forced to release confidential internal documents. In all, 1,489 police officers -- 68 lieutenants, 159 sergeants, 31 detectives and 1,231 patrol officers -- have seen "The Third Jihad," according to the Times.

This comes after top police officers admitted they worked with the CIA to spy on Muslim groups, including monitoring Islamic bookstores and mosques.

Read original post here: The Third Jihad': Nearly 1,500 NYPD officers saw anti-Islam documentary

Canada: Ahmadiyya Muslim community hosting open house

2012-01-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

The "Tribute to Mother Mary (An Islamic Perspective)" event is an open house "to promote religious harmony, dispel misconceptions about Islam and most of all to educate people about the status that Islam gives to "Mother Mary" and women in general."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Kincardine News
By Troy Patterson | January 26, 2012

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is returning to Kincardine this Saturday, Jan. 28 for an open house on the "Mother Mary," in a fort to dispel myths surrounding Islam and to explain the differences and similarities to Christianity.

Kincardine Public Library will host the event from noon to 4 p.m. The organizations was in the area last year and earlier this month on similar missions, spreading their "Message of Peace" through a door-to-door flyer campaign.

"We have been promoting peace, condemning terrorism and dispelling myths about Islam as a part of our Nationwide campaign for the past year," said Rizwan Rabbani, national executive director of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association Canada in a media release.

The "Tribute to Mother Mary (An Islamic Perspective)" event is an open house "to promote religious harmony, dispel misconceptions about Islam and most of all to educate people about the status that Islam gives to "Mother Mary" and women in general," the release said. The group will also be in Goderich the same day.

The non-profit, charitable and religious organization is now established in 200 countries, with 65 chapters. Rabbani estimates they've reached upwards of 1.2 million people in 238 communities across Canada with the help of 2,335 volunteers.

For more information visit www.alislam.orgor www.Quranopenhouse.ca

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US: Calling it sharia shouldn't make it scary

2012-01-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

...As expressed in A Common Word, a consensus document between Muslim and Christian religious leaders, Muslims share two basic ethical principles with Jews and Christians: love God and love your neighbour – as well as other core values.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Common Ground News Service
By Jon Pahl | January 24, 2012

Philadelphia - What’s so scary about sharia, or Islamic legal principles? According to a recent decision from a US Federal Appellate Court – one level below the Supreme Court – not much.

The recent decision of the 10th Circuit Court effectively blocks implementation of Oklahoma Law 755, also called the “Save Our State” measure. Law 755 was passed as a constitutional amendment by 70 per cent of Oklahoma voters in November 2010. Along with prohibiting courts from using “international law”, it also expressly “forbids courts from considering or using Sharia Law”. Similar laws have passed in Tennessee and Louisiana and comparable bills are pending in at least 20 states.

The 10th Circuit Court received the case after US District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange decided in favour of Muneer Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma, who had sued to block the law. He claimed Law 755 violated his rights to religious freedom, which are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

The three-judge panel that issued the ruling against Law 755 did so largely for procedural reasons, claiming Awad had grounds to raise First Amendment issues. Law 755, they agreed, expressly condemned only one religion, Islam, thus violating the establishment clause of the US Constitution, which dictates that the government cannot favour one religion. Finally, the judges also suggested there was little reason for Law 755. Supporters of Law 755 admitted “they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law”.

This issue’s salience here in the United States is symbolic, it isn’t really about law. While the term “sharia” sounds scary to lots of Americans, the irony is that many who think they are opposed to sharia would be only too happy to support many of its general claims. For instance, those who claim to mistrust it would often love to have Americans (and perhaps especially lawyers and judges) pay more attention to the Ten Commandments – a kind of reasoning encouraged by sharia.

Decades ago, Princeton University professor Edward S. Corwin published a still-used short book entitled The “Higher Law” Background of American Constitutional Law, which should be assigned reading for anybody wary of sharia. According to Corwin, American constitutional law was founded not only upon Enlightenment philosophical notions, but also upon theological affirmations. In fact, he suggested, American jurisprudence rested on a deep ethic that was quite congenial to transcendent “higher” reasoning.

At root, sharia asserts this fact. This was what the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was trying to say in 2008 when he opined in a BBC interview that “there are perfectly proper ways the law of the land pays respect to custom and community; that’s already there.”

As Williams discovered, much of the furore over his comments has focused on issues prone to sensationalism. Different customs have developed in Western democracies and Muslim majority countries regarding property (especially borrowing and lending) and family life (especially monogamy and divorce). But these contrasts could just as easily be applied to England and the United States a century ago and England and the United States today. Divorce laws in particular have changed dramatically.

In the vast majority of cases, there is no conflict between Islamic legal principles and the jurisprudence of English common law or American constitutional law. One reason for this is that the “higher law” backgrounds of the different traditions in fact share an Abrahamic ethic: the social covenant to command the good and prohibit the evil. As expressed in A Common Word, a consensus document between Muslim and Christian religious leaders, Muslims share two basic ethical principles with Jews and Christians: love God and love your neighbour – as well as other core values.

US courts have the responsibility to uphold constitutional rights. Other scholars and professionals have responsibilities to educate the public and dispel myths about sharia.

For example, the American Bar Association recently sponsored a webinar entitled “Dispelling the Sharia Threat Myth”. And Muslim scholars have been offering clarifications, among them “Dispelling Myths about Sharia” by Imam Mustapha Elturk. According to Elturk, sharia is a set of principles that guides Muslims to secure five “protections”: faith, life, family, property, and intellect. In this sense sharia is analogous to the “higher law” background of American Constitutional law. The challenge is in the application. After all, consider the debate in Western tradition about how to apply the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”

Sharia is bound to resurface in the 2012 US presidential campaign. The way to move forward is to point out demagogues and allay fears of those concerned. The debate over sharia might even help us define a clearer role for religious reasoning in public life. In short, it might help us find common ground.

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* Jon Pahl, Ph.D. is Professor of the History of Christianity in North American and Director of MA Programs at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

Read original post here: Calling it sharia shouldn't make it scary

Canada: Interfaith Symposium comes to Nanaimo

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Religious scholars representing Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism, Hindu Faith, Judaism and Islam, plus dignitaries, scholars, students and the general public from across Vancouver Island are expected to attend the conference.

File photo: Interfaith Symposium hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
at the Milton Centre for the Arts in November 2011.
(Photo: Steven der-Gorabedian)

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Nanaimo News Bulletin
By Chris Bush | January 26, 2012

Varying perspectives of the world's religious faiths will be showcased at an upcoming interfaith conference.

Presenters will discuss the philosophical and religious perspectives of their various faiths on life after death during the Interfaith Symposium, at Vancouver Island University's Malaspina Theatre, Monday (Jan. 30).

"They're asked not to make comparisons with other faiths, so it's not a debate about which faith is best," said Nanaimo Coun. Diane Brennan, who will moderate the conference, which is co-hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at of B.C. "There will be time for questions and answers at the end, but it's really an opportunity to find out about other religions and their perspectives on the afterlife."

The conference is one of four interfaith symposiums held across Canada through January.

Religious scholars representing Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism, Hindu Faith, Judaism and Islam, plus dignitaries, scholars, students and the general public from across Vancouver Island are expected to attend the conference, which runs 6-9:30 p.m.

For more information, please visit the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Canada website at www.ahmadiyya.ca.

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Eye on history: Science - Islam's forgotten geniuses

2012-01-27T02:00:00.000-08:00

This world view, based on a mixture of theology and rational thinking, produced wonderful advances in philosophy, astronomy, medicine and mathematics, in particular the emergence of algebra and trigonometry.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: The Telegraph UK | Archives
By Jim Al-Khalili | January 29, 2008

The untold story of Arabic brilliance should be a timely reminder of a proud heritage, says Jim Al-Khalili

Next year, we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, and the 150th of the publication of his On The Origin of Species, which revolutionised our understanding of biology.

But what if Darwin was beaten to the punch? Approximately 1,000 years before the British naturalist published his theory of evolution, a scientist working in Baghdad was thinking along similar lines.

In the Book of Animals, abu Uthman al-Jahith (781-869), an intellectual of East African descent, was the first to speculate on the influence of the environment on species. He wrote: "Animals engage in a struggle for existence; for resources, to avoid being eaten and to breed. Environmental factors influence organisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival, thus transforming into new species. Animals that survive to breed can pass on their successful characteristics to offspring."

There is no doubt that it qualifies as a theory of natural selection - even though the Book of Animals appears to have been based to a large extent on folklore rather than on zoological fact.

Despite the strong feelings Darwin provokes among many Muslims - many Islamic scholars see the Koran as creationist, and so at odds with evolution - it seems astounding that al-Jahith's quote has been largely ignored.

In fact, although popular accounts of the history of science typically show no major advances taking place between the Romans and the Renaissance, al-Jahith's work was part of an astonishing flowering of invention and innovation that took place in the Muslim world, and in Iraq in particular, in the Middle Ages.

This world view, based on a mixture of theology and rational thinking, produced wonderful advances in philosophy, astronomy, medicine and mathematics, in particular the emergence of algebra and trigonometry.

Although the Muslim world is often now seen as ill-equipped for scientific discovery, we can look back to Baghdad and see the origins of the modern scientific method, the world's first physicist and the world's first chemist; advances in surgery and anatomy, the birth of geology and anthropology; not to mention remarkable feats of engineering.

For 700 years, the international language of science was Arabic; and Baghdad, the capital of the mighty Abbasid Empire, was the centre of the intellectual world. The story starts around 813, when the caliph of Baghdad, al-Ma'mun, is said to have had a vivid and life-changing dream. In it, he met the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who instructed him to "seek knowledge and enlightenment".

This was the starting point for a lifelong obsession with science and philosophy. Al-Ma'mun created the famous House of Wisdom, a library, translation house and scientific academy unmatched since the glory days of Alexandria.

The caliph would then recruit some of the greatest names in Arabic science, such as the mathematician al-Khwarizmi and the philosopher al-Kindi. Although many of these thinkers were not Arabs themselves, they conducted their science and wrote their books in Arabic.

In the West, though, they were better known by their Latin names, such as Alkindus, Alhazen, Averroes and Avicenna. The most famous of all was Avicenna (or ibn Sina, to give him his correct name).

Born in Persia in 980, he was a child prodigy who grew up to become one of the world's greatest philosophers and physicians. His great work, the Canon of Medicine, was to remain the standard medical text both in the Islamic and Christian worlds until well into the 17th century.

He is credited with the discovery and explanation of contagious diseases and the first correct description of the anatomy of the human eye. As a philosopher, Avicenna is referred to as the Aristotle of Islam; as a physician, he is its Galen.

Indeed, it would not be inappropriate to refer to Aristotle and Galen as the Avicennas of the Greeks. My favourite of all the Abbasid scientists, however, is another Persian scholar by the name of al-Biruni.

Here was a polymath with a free-ranging and formidable intellect: not only did he make significant breakthroughs as a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, but he also left his mark as a theologian, encyclopaedist, linguist, historian, geographer, pharmacist and physician.

Famously, having developed the mathematics of trigonometry, he was able to measure the circumference of the Earth to within a few miles. The only other figure in history whose legacy rivals the scope of al-Biruni's scholarship would be Leonardo da Vinci. So what went wrong?

What brought to an end this golden age of Abassid and Arabic science? The standard answer is that the ending came suddenly, in 1258, when the Mongols ransacked Baghdad. During the occupation, a large number of the books in the House of Wisdom were destroyed.

But Baghdad was by this time far from the only centre of scholarship in the Arabic speaking world - and wonderful advances continued to be made in Cairo and Cordoba right up to the European Renaissance in the 15th century.

There is also an argument that the decline was due to a change in attitude of the Islamic world towards science. This was primarily a consequence of the work of the 11th-century scholar and theologian al-Ghazali, who famously criticised Muslim scientists for their over-reliance on the philosophy of the ancient Greeks.

Yet this, too, cannot be the whole story. Al-Ghazali was primarily attacking a theological viewpoint that relied on ideas he deemed anti-Islamic. Hard science should not have been so affected by this more metaphysical dispute.

The real decline had much more to do with a weakening of the power of the caliphate as a whole, of which the Mongol invasion was merely one symptom.

By the end of the 11th century, Baghdad had lost control over much of its empire, and weaker caliphs were simply less inclined to encourage and finance scientific scholarship. But, just as the golden age of Arabic science began with the translation of the great Greek texts of Aristotle, Euclid and Ptolemy, so was the work of the Arabic scholars transferred to Europe

. For example, al-Jahith's Book of Animals was a major influence on Arab scholars of the 11th to 14th centuries, and the Latin translations of their work in turn became known to Charles Darwin's predecessors, Linnaeus, Buffon and Lamarck.

By the 16th century, while scientific and technological progress continued to be made at a gentler pace in the Muslim world under Persian and Ottoman rule, the European Renaissance was well under way.

The mystery is why the debt the West owed to Muslim scholars was then overlooked: acknowledged at all, the Abbasids are normally credited with nothing more than acting as the guardians of Greek science.

In a world of increasing religious tension, the untold story of Arabic science is a timely reminder of the debt the West owes to the Muslim world – and, perhaps more importantly, of the proud heritage today's Muslims should acknowledge.

Jim Al-Khalili is professor of physics and public engagement in science at the University of Surrey.

Read original post here: Science: Islam's forgotten geniuses

UK: Death of a friend and colleague | BBC Blog by Hamid Ismailov

2012-01-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

He translated the best of Tatar classic poetry into English, he published a two-volume book 'Islam in Russia', he composed a crown of sonnets in four languages, he brought to London the first ever Tatar theatre, which performed a fantastic fairy-tale of his.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: BBC - UK | Blog
By Hamid Ismailov | January 25, 2012

My friend and my colleague Ravil Bukharaev died of heart attack at the age of 60.

I have known Ravil for the last 30-odd years. I knew him from our youth when we were both young, hungry and ambitious non-Russian poets aspiring to conquer the endless territory of Soviet literature from Moscow.

He became a part of my life, much like furniture one has at home.

You rarely think what do you do to your furniture, right? You can step onto a chair, you can kick a table's leg when you're angry, you can take a tissue and tenderly wipe away dust from your cupboard - it's yours.

It was the same with him.

It's as if nothing stands out about the association, until you lose and understand that a part of your life is irreplaceably gone.

But he was a special - more than that - outstanding, rare man.

I was recently rearranging my home library and with some spiritual amazement and physical annoyance I rediscovered how many books he had written and had given to me.

I wanted to tell him off, jokingly, that he made me work hard that day, but alas...

The books he had written and given me were in Russian, in Tatar, in English, in Hungarian.

Not translated into those languages by others, but written by Ravil himself in the original.

And the range of writing he attained was wide: from the finest poetry to topical politology, from profound philosophy to brilliant prose.

He translated the best of Tatar classic poetry into English, he published a two-volume book 'Islam in Russia', he composed a crown of sonnets in four languages, he brought to London the first ever Tatar theatre, which performed a fantastic fairy-tale of his.

We worked for over 15 years in the same building, in Bush House, the headquarters of BBC World Service.

He used to work in the Russian Service producing and presenting the best of their output, such as the discussion programme 'Radius'.

He was one of the anchors of the service famous for many writers and poets who worked there. He was around whenever he was needed.

When a friend dies
a part of you dies
your sweet or bitter memories,
your common past,
conversations about books which you are writing, going to write, discussions with open ends, which never end, petty complaints, winging, laughing together, just drinking tea, exchanging views on anything insignificant, telephone calls out of blue, when you want share something and promises, plans, plans, plans...
all of that die...
When your friend dies
you die...

Our mutual friends -Alyona from Kazan, Ak from Stockholm, Rollan from Almaty, Rustem from Kiev, Jean-Pierre from Paris - all are devastated by this sad news, he has left such a big hole in this world.

He wrote a poem 'Bee', which was about him, a man who was so generous in giving himself to this world, to people, to his wife Lyda, to his family...

And without Ravil a sweetening taste of honey will be missed in our lives...

Bee

I am sitting here and writing with a ball-pen;
To the window-pane above I turn my eyes.
In the porch outside a hazel-tree is blooming.
Like a little yellow cloud upon the skies.

The pollen hangs so heavy on the branches,
A brook runs bubbling through the deep ravine;
A bee crawls over my blue sheet of paper,
A wild striped bee that haunts the forest green.

Outside the bee has gone from flower to flower;
I carefully examine it and see
How it has stained its wings and its proboscis
With pollen from the flowers on the tree.

Indeed it has been working very wisely,
Collecting every drop of nectar there.
I must return to my blue sheet of paper,
So I release the bee into the air.

Working in a lonely house takes patience;
How long we need to wait to have our wish
For lines of verse like clear, transparent honey
To shine and sparkle on an empty dish!

Our hearts go to Ravil's wife Lydya and his family.

Read original post here: Death of a friend and colleague - Hamid Ismailov

Indonesia: Law Enforcers ‘Rarely Neutral’ in Religious Conflict

2012-01-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

“During our interviews with [police] officers in Pandeglang [in Banten], they all said that when it comes to religious conflicts, their own religion comes first, then their uniform.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe
By Ulma Haryanto | January 26, 2012

When dealing with religious conflict in the field, police officers and other law enforcement officials tend to put their beliefs before their uniform, a researcher said on Wednesday.

Gadjah Mada University political analyst Samsu Rizal Panggabean said that several factors explained why field officers were reluctant to take action.

“The first is a problem of identity,” Samsu said in a public discussion titled Police, Civil Society, and Religious Conflicts in Indonesia. “During our interviews with [police] officers in Pandeglang [in Banten], they all said that when it comes to religious conflicts, their own religion comes first, then their uniform.”

Pandeglang includes the Cikeusik subdistrict, the scene of a brutal attack on Ahmadiyah community members last February. Three members of the minority Muslim sect died in the attack, gruesome footage of which was uploaded to YouTube.

The footage showed how police officers stood by watching as the Ahmadis were attacked.

“This situation is not unique. We also learned that during the conflict in Ambon [in Maluku], officers there were known to take sides according to their religion,” the researcher said.

Ambon was the scene of bloody interreligious conflict between 1999 to 2002 that left thousands of people dead.

The second factor behind police inaction in the face of religious conflict, Samsu said, was the lack of support from mainstream religious organizations.

“I’ve never seen the chief of police appear in public with leaders of NU and Muhammadiyah,” Samsu said, referring to the largest Indonesian religious organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, and the second-largest one.

Yosep Adi Prasetyo, deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), added that instead, police are often seen with hard-line groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

“They might say that they are doing it for the sake of getting information, but I have to say the current National Police chief’s track record isn’t exactly spotless,” Yosep said in reference to Gen. Timur Pradopo.

After the Cikeusik attack, Timur suggested in a hearing with lawmakers that the Ahmadis had only themselves to blame for the fatalities for failing to heed police advice to flee.

Yosep said that most of the time police failed to be impartial because they had vested interests: “Funding from outside the APBN [state budget] is actually much larger [than official funding],” he said.

Non-APBN sources of income for the police, he said, included unlawful “security payments” from private companies, acknowledged and called “understandable” by the National Police, and kickbacks from field officers.

But Mubarik Ahmad, a spokesman for the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI), said that police in the recent past have proven that they could take a firm stand in religious conflicts.

“There was a time when the West Java Police chief gave a clear instruction to his men at Manis Lor village to not let any outsiders in,” Mubarik said.

In July 2010, thousands of anti-Ahmadiyah protesters flocked to the village where around 2,000 Ahmadis lived. “And they did their job, it was tense but nobody got hurt, no blood was shed,” Mubarik said.

Read original post here: Law Enforcers ‘Rarely Neutral’ in Religious Conflict

Pakistan: Ahmadis brace for violence, trampling of rights in Rawalpindi

2012-01-26T16:00:00.001-08:00

The poster and banners, inciting hate against Ahmadis are seen throughout the Satellite Town and the surrounding areas and many show the instigators have proudly added their name on the banners.

A hate banner, calling for an anti-Ahmadiyya action rally on January 29

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Jama'at Ahmadiyya Pakistan
By Imran Jattala | January 26, 2011

The Ahmadiyya Muslim community is under siege in Rawalpindi, and militants promise to create chaos in the name of religion.

According to Al-Ufaq, a news website, the Satellite Town area of Rawalpindi city, adjacent to the Pakistani capital Islamabad, is now a scene of countless banners and posters containing hate content and threats against Ahmadi Muslims.

The hate climate has been amplified by a recent call for unrest against Ahmadi Muslims by the banned militant organization, JuD, a group that has been named in several terrorists attacks in and outside of Pakistan.

The Ahmadiyya community says their centre in Satellite Town, Rawalpindi has been the target of extremists’ hate and the militants have now declared an all out war against Ahmadis’ right to worship there.

The countless anti-Ahmadiyya banners hang high throughout the satellite town and the surrounding areas are striking fear in the hearts of the besieged community, say the Ahmadi members.

A hate banner, calling for an anti-Ahmadiyya action rally

The extremist groups, namely JuD and Khatam-e Nubuwwat have planned a massive rally against Ahmadi Muslims on Sunday, January 29th.

“The poster plastered around Rawalpindi [are] instigating hatred,” said a twitter post by the community representative in Pakistan.

“The rally is supported by JuD, not a pleasant combination,” the statement further stated.

The fanatics have continuously waged a violent war against Ahmadi Muslims to practically deny them the right to practice their faith, many rights organizations and media outlets have noted over the years.

The Ahmadi Muslims say they follow Islam in its purest form which was practiced the Holy Founder of Islam, the Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allah be on him).

The Ahmadiyya Muslims also points to the country’s founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah who had envisioned equal rights for all citizens to worship as they see fit.

“Every Ahmadi has a right to perform religious duties, given by Mr. Jinnah in [his] 11 August speech. Why it’s not [OK] for Ahmadis?” asked the Ahmadiyya community representative.

The poster and banners, inciting hate against Ahmadis are seen throughout the Satellite Town and the surrounding areas and many show the instigators have proudly added their names on the banners.

A hate banner, calling for an anti-Ahmadiyya action rally on January 29

A large poster sponsored by one Arshad Mahmood Awaan and one Sardar Touqeer Hussain is seen hung at Boher Bazar road, calling for the businessmen of the area to join the messive anti-Ahmadiyya relly.

Another banner, sponsered by one Sharjeel Mir and one Sheikh Arsalan Hafiz invites the entire city of Rawalpindi to attend the rally.

Yet another banner placed by one Hafiz Mohammad Shafiq of Wahabi group beseeches the entire Muslim nation to show up for the event.

“[How can] you still expect someone to protect Ahmadis of Satellite Town?,” the Ahmadiyya representative asks highlighting one hate-banner hanging right next to the Banni Thana police station.

Ahmadis do not expect much in terms of morality from the extremist clerics, they say, but “How is this even legal?”, they do ask.

Read the Al Ufaq post here: Pakistan: Hate Campaign against Ahmadis of Satellite Town, Rawalpindi

Pakistan: Pope names interfaith-dialogue promoter as Karachi archbishop

2012-01-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

Pakistan's blasphemy laws have criticised for being used as a tool to persecute non-Muslims by jailing them for allegedly defaming Islam.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: AdnKronos
By AdnKronos | January 25, 2012

Vatican City, 25 Jan. (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday appointed Joseph Coutts as archbishop of Karachi, the Pakistani sprawling southern port city where Christians have been the target of religious violence, the Vatican announced.

He succeeds Evarist Pinto, who resigned after reaching the age limit of 75 years old.

The late Pope John Paul II in 1998 appointed Coutts Bishop of Faisalabad, an industrial city in the centre of Pakistan.

The Catholic University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt in Germany awarded Coutts the 2007 Shalom Prize for his commitment to interfaith dialogue in Pakistan. Coutts says he has received death threats from Muslim extremists his work.

As Karachi's archbishop, Coutts, 66, will oversee the 150,000 Catholics and 40 priests in Pakistan's largest city where almost all of the metropolis' 15 million people are Muslim.

The Vatican has spoken out against persecution of Pakistan's religious minorities, with particular emphasis on Christians who have been raped and murdered, and some say jailed for their beliefs.

In 2009, an 11-year-old boy in Karachi died after being shot in the head and others were killed and injured at the hands of armed gangs who demanded them to convert to Islam.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws have criticised for being used as a tool to persecute non-Muslims by jailing them for allegedly defaming Islam.

Ninety-five percent of Pakistanis are Muslim, mainly Sunnis. Christians and Hindus make up approximately 5 percent of Pakistan's 177 million people.

Read original post here: Pakistan: Pope names interfaith-dialogue promoter as Karachi archbishop

UK: Will An International Blasphemy Law Hurt The Interests Of Muslim Minorities In The United Kingdom?

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

If the commissars of the European Union think that such curbs would be a useful stick to beat majority populations with, it is quite clear that they would also adversely affect the interests of minorities who have fled to Europe to avoid such persecution.

File photo: Huddersfield Quran Exhibition - 2011

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Int'l Civil Liberties Alliance
By Aeneas | January 24, 2012

In a world that is contemplating international blasphemy laws that will lead to the suppression of free speech cries of ‘heretic’ (and even allusions to it) are very alarming. We have had our share of that sort of thing historically in the West and it would be unacceptable for our societies to move back in that direction.

The Huddersfield Examiner has reported that the Kirklees Muslims Action Committee appears to have accused another Muslim group of just that, though they do not seem to have mentioned the ‘H-word’ specifically. According to an article in the Huddersfield Examiner:

“They claim that the Ahmadiyya Muslims are not true Muslims and have condemned them for hosting an exhibition of the Holy Koran.”

Whether or not this represents an accusation of heresy, it does not seem to be a very tolerant or inclusive attitude to take. So long as people do not impose their religious beliefs on others then surely people should be able to worship God in their own way?

It is true that the World Muslim League, in what could be described as a kind of Council of Nicaea episode, made a declaration repudiating the Ahmadiyyat movement, but does such a statement of opinion mean that something is so?

The article goes on to report:

“…Mr Amar Usman Ali, a spokesman for the Action Committee, said they were offended by the event.”

We see the word ‘offended’ in almost constant use these days as a means to silence debate and discussion on religious issues. It is something that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) seems to want make into a global norm, and which Western governments seem willing to indulge in via the ‘Istanbul Process’.

Under an international blasphemy law would religious minorities in the United Kingdom be persecuted by the state? Would the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community be accused of ‘hate speech’ or ‘blasphemy’ by simply claiming to be Muslims? Since the OIC appears to want to use the ‘Istanbul Process’ to apply OIC values to the entire world, perhaps we should take a look at the model for the international blasphemy law – the member states of the OIC itself. How is the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community treated in OIC member states? The following is from an article entitled ‘Harassment: Three Ahmedis accused under blasphemy laws’ and illustrates the situation in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:

“Sajeel Ahmed, 18, of Khushab was accused of making derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in a first information report (FIR) registered under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which carries the death penalty.” (Source: thepersecution.org)

More articles about the persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community can be found HERE.

It is quite clear that by curbing freedom of expression Western Governments will also be placing very severe limits on religious freedom. If the commissars of the European Union think that such curbs would be a useful stick to beat majority populations with, it is quite clear that they would also adversely affect the interests of minorities who have fled to Europe to avoid such persecution. What sort of outfit is the European Union to even participate in the Istanbul Process? It says as much about it as it does of the OIC.

More information about the The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community can be found HERE.

Read original post here: Will An International Blasphemy Law Hurt The Interests Of Muslim Minorities In The United Kingdom?

Faith and facts: The paradox of Christian belief in light of John 1:1 and 1:14

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

When discussing beliefs about Jesus (peace be upon him), almost all Christians agree that Jesus is the "Son of God" in the literal, physical sense and the second "person" in the Trinitarian godhead of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times
By Jonathan M.A. Ghaffar | January 26, 2011

Anyone sacrificing themselves to save another is always enamored (loved) in the heart of the saved, but with it comes the inferred oath of fealty to that which saved you.

The paradox of Christian belief about the nature of Jesus (as articulated in their theology and expressed by most Christians) is aptly demonstrated in the first verse of the Gospel of John, which (in the King James version) reads:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

This Gospel was written for the Greek-Roman world and its majority population of polytheists, stoics and rationalists, but verse 1 is also a direct allusion to Genesis 1:1 and was meant to attract Hellenized (non-Hebrew literate) Jews to Christianity. Needless to say (so, of course, I’ll say it), the allusion to “In the beginning…” in Genesis would have been completely lost on its mostly Greek pagan audience.
We have no way of knowing how it was received by any of the Greek-speaking Jews of the time, but judging from the near zero conversion rate, not so well. But on to the present day, where, interestingly enough, we find the same near zero conversion rate of Jews to Christianity. But that’s another story…

When discussing beliefs about Jesus (peace be upon him), almost all Christians agree that Jesus is the "Son of God" in the literal, physical sense and the second "person" in the Trinitarian godhead of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But whenever I ask a Christian "So, is Jesus also God as well?" they almost always answer "Yes" based on John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…" and because John 1:1 says "In the beginning was the Word,” which everyone would naturally assume would be God because that's where He's supposed to be -- in the beginning. Even before the beginning, actually, because God has no beginning or end.

John 1:1 continues: "and the Word was with God"…

Uh-oh, what's going on here! First it says “In the beginning was the Word” but now it's saying God was there along with the Word. OK, that’s a bit of a surprise… I mean, why even start by making us think there was only the Word in the beginning if that wasn’t really the case? Why not just go right to the part where God and the Word were together in the first place?

John 1:1 continues: "and the Word was God."

Awright, what’s going on here! There’s no way George Orwell was alive when the Gospel of John was written! First it says there was just the Word, then it says, No, God was with the Word there in the beginning, too. Then it has the audacity to say "and the Word was God." So what just happened? Grammatically it says that God was alongside the Word at first but then became the Word and there was just God as the Word (or the Word as God, depending on whom you believe became and/or supplanted whom).

Now, at least the Jehovah’s Witnesses translate that whole unintelligible, illogical mess of Greek so it still makes some sense overall by saying "and the Word was a god." At least they're being honest and keeping everyone in their place and the math up to snuff. And that's just verse one of the Gospel of John!

It doesn’t get any better when you look at John 1:2 "And the same was in the beginning with God." What, there were two beginnings? You could certainly read it that way. And what "same" is John talking about?

The next verse doesn’t clarify anything. John 1:3 reads “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” This is equally confounding, if only because you aren't sure and aren't told exactly who the "him" is. By the prior (attempted) definition, you would assume it was the dual-entity Word-God.

So where is the Holy Spirit in all of this? Aren't they all supposed to be "three-in-one"? All together all the time, indivisible, etc. etc.? Nope, no mention of the Holy Spirit in there. Again, at least the Jehovah's Witness version gives them an extra "entity" (and the Word was a God) to explain how the Holy Spirit was there with the other two in the beginning. But the JW's aren't really Christians anyway, according to all the Christians I've ever met and all the books about Christianity I've read.

In fact, the Book of John only makes sense when you start reading from verse 6: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John." The irony, of course, is that this "John" is John the Baptist -- not the John ascribed as the author of the Book of John. But even that sentence suffers from ambiguity because it could be interpreted that "John" was the name of God, from "...sent from God, whose name was John." You would think after 400 years in the English language, this sentence could be corrected to: "There was a man named John, who was sent by God." Maybe the new-fangled translations print it that way; but I tend to stick to the King James because it’s still the most well known.

And while some Christians may believe that Jesus is not God (but how could that be, based on John 1:1 and 14?) the confusion in such fundamentals of doctrine which Christians have never been able to correct or overcome makes the dissemination of what is considered "standard" Christian belief contradictory and often alienating to the recipient. And you wonder why the usual answer is "Oh, just don't think about it" or "It's a mystery, so don't try to understand it -- you can't -- but you have to believe it or else you go to hell. Forever." And that, dear reader, is one reason why I am not a Christian. I refuse to be strong-armed into my salvation at the expense of my reasoning and rationality.

The difference between the Christian creed and the Islamic creed is that Christians can't adequately define, explain or defend theirs -- they can't even agree on what it is. Just look at the complaints by Christians to a Muslim rapper's recent YouTube video “Why I hate religion but love Jesus – Muslim version” which is in response to a Christian’s nearly 15-million-hits YouTube video on why he hates religion but loves Jesus. The comments to the Muslim version decry supposed inaccuracies in presented Christian beliefs, yet every point made about Christian doctrine can be readily substantiated by Biblical verses or some mainstream interpretation of that belief. The fact that these often contradict each other, often within the same source (take Paul’s letter to the Romans, for instance) is hardly surprising and understandably exasperating.

In comparison, the Islamic creed -- "There is no god except Allah [Elohim in Hebrew], and Muhammad is the messenger of God” -- is crystal clear and has been perfectly understood by everyone who has professed it to become a Muslim since it was codified at the start of Islam 1400 years ago,

Of course, everyone is entitled to believe in their religion in whatever way they like, but for presenting it to others for the purpose of winning them over to it, you need to have a consensus of opinion on what the central beliefs are, and then said beliefs must be able to withstand logical criticism and theosophical argument. Christianity fails spectacularly on both fronts. This is because the "glue" that holds everything together is made almost entirely from the emotionalism and indebtedness revolving around the idea that God became Jesus so he could die for your sins. Anyone sacrificing themselves to save another is always enamored (loved) in the heart of the saved, but with it comes the inferred oath of fealty to that which saved you.

And Christianity even says this explicitly. You must accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The Lord part refers to Jesus being your boss while you are alive on Earth and your Savior when you die so you will be "saved" from going to hell. And it's not a "free gift" as Christianity promises. If it were free, a person could convert to Christianity and keep on being a Muslim or a Jew or an atheist and when they die, they would still get to go to heaven -- even if they didn't believe there was one! Now that would be a loving God indeed.

---------------------------------------------
Jonathan M.A. Ghaffar is co-host of the twice weekly radio show "Understanding Islam with Imam Shamshad." He is a student of Islam, comparative religion and the historical Jesus. He can be reached at: JonathanMAG@Gmal.com

-- The paradox of Christian belief in light of John 1:1 and 1:14
-- Ahmadiyya Times

UK: Prominant Rusian writer and poet Ravil Bukharaev passes away

2012-01-26T04:00:00.001-08:00

Mr Bukharaev, who had mastered 9 languages, published over 30 books and represented Russia on a number of occasions at international book fairs.

Photo: Google images / Black Quadrat

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
By Staff writer | January 25, 2011

The Prominent writer and poet Ravil Bukharaev passed away on24 January 2012 in London, the Russian Embassy announced yesterday.

The Embassy expressed its condolences to the family of thedeceased.

Ravil Bukharaev was born in 1951 in Kazan, Republic ofTatarstan (Russia).

According to the Embassy’s press release, Mr. Bukharaev wasa member of the Union of Soviet Writers Since 1977and he was also a member ofsimilar writers’ associations in a number of other countries.

Mr. Bukharaev played a prominent part in the life of theRussian community in the UK where he lived since 1990, the release furtheradded.

Mr Bukharaev, who had mastered 9 languages, published over30 books and represented Russia on a number of occasions at international bookfairs, had received several Russian and Tatarstanawards.

Ravil Bukharaev, a born Muslim, joined the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his personal research into his faith.

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-- UK: Prominant writer and poet Ravil Bukharaev passes away
-- Edited by Imran Jattala

Ahmadis who stood Tall - IV | Afghanistan ~ Mullah Naematullah

2012-01-26T01:00:00.001-08:00

“O land of Kabul! you are a witness to the heinous crime committed on your soil. O miserable land! you have, in the sight of Allah, been condemned as you are the scene of this most atrocious crime.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Munir Khan
By Munir Khan | January 26, 2011

On 31st of August 1924 a Muslim holy man who had been imprisoned for many months in a dark, windowless cell in a dungeon in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan heard the sound of a drumbeat in the distance. As the sound of the drumbeat drew closer he could make out the sound of the town crier calling the people of Kabul to gather that evening at the main maydaan (open ground) to witness a great public spectacle. The event was to be no ordinary spectacle but the public stoning to death of the holy man himself sitting in that dark cell.

Some year previously another Muslim holy man of great renown had been imprisoned and publicly stoned to death in Kabul. He too had been an Ahmadi and for many years the Ahmadis of Kabul had been dispersed and had been living in hiding constantly under fear of arrest.
But by 1919 it was felt that an Ahmadi should return to Kabul to care for the spiritual wellbeing of the remaining Ahmadis in Afghanistan. Mullah Naematullah a young Afghan seminary student who had been studying in Qadian was asked to return to Kabul. He was instructed not to advertise the fact that he was an Ahmadi and thus invite the ire of the virulent mullahs but to go about his business discreetly and to engage primarily in Tarbiyyat.

Kabul was at the time ruled by Amir Amanullah Khan the son of Amir Habibullah Khan. He was a man ostensibly known as someone who was of a more western and cosmopolitan frame of mind. When the young Naematullah heard an announcement declaring that in Kabul there would be complete freedom of religion he communicated this fact to Hadhrat Mirza Bashir ud Din Mahmood Ahmad Khalifatul Masih II, and enquired whether he should go about his activities more openly. Remembering the past duplicity of the Amir’s father in his treatment of Ahmadis, Hadhur wisely and prudently took steps to ensure that the Amir stuck to his word.

In August 1919 a delegation led by Mohammed Tarzi former Ambassador to France and currently the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan arrived in Mansoori, India to negotiate a treaty with the British. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II despatched a delegation led by Naik Mohammed Khan Ghaznavi an Afghan Ahmadi national settled in Qadian to meet the Afghan delegation and seek assurances regarding the remaining Ahmadis of Kabul. Such assurances were given by Sardar Tarzi and the delegation was assured that Ahmadis wold be safe in Afghanistan.

Mullah Naematullah was told of these assurances, but was nevertheless urged to have them re-confirmed in Kabul and further letters were written to Sardar Tarzi and to the well-known Turk General Jamal Pasha resident in Kabul and someone who was influential at court and a confidante of the King. Once again fulsome assurances were received from all official quarters assuring Ahmadis that they would be safe in Afghanistan.

Before leaving for Afghanistan, and whilst he was still in Peshawar waiting to leave for Kabul Mullah Naematullah had met Hadhrat Qazi Muhmmad Yusuf Sahib of Mardan and the Ameer of the Ahmadiyya jamaat in NWFP .Hadhrat Qazi Sahib had been concerned for the young man’s welfare and had asked the young Mullah Naematullah:

“suppose the Amir breaks his promise and you are faced with the same fate as Sahibzada Abdul Lateef who had been stoned to death what would be your reaction; would you remain firm in your belief or flee Kabul?”.

The young Mullah Naematullah replied quietly:

“Qazi Sahib, I can only answer that question when I am faced with such a situation any other answer could well be considered a boast made without real foundation.”

History would show that in duplicity and treachery Amir Amanullah Khan proved to be his father’s son and reneged on all the assurances given to the jamaat. As soon as Mullah Naematullah came out in the open, he was arrested and incarcerated in prison. The prison in Kabul was nothing more than a dungeon and cesspit and apart from the absence of light he was kept in complete isolation. Left to his thoughts he spent his time in prayer and contemplation and in his imagination wandered down the narrow streets of his beloved Qadian, and remembered the days spent in prayer and reflection. He remembered how after Fajr prayers he would walk to the graveyard of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and offer silent prayers and gaze at the plaque on which the names of the other two Afghan martyrs (Hadhrat Sahibzada Abdul Lateef & Hadhrat Maulvi Abdul Rehman) were also inscribed, and wonder if his name would also join that list of blessed martyrs. In one of his last letters smuggled out he wrote:

“As darkness deepens, simultaneously, to a corresponding degree Allah grants me light of the heart and tranquillity”

He was filled with such nobility of heart that he was more concerned for his fellow Ahmadis that they may be concerned and worried for his welfare; and in particular he was worried that Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih would be deeply perturbed for his welfare. From his cell he wrote:

“I request my Ahmadi brethren to pray to the Almighty that I may be able serve my faith. Throughout my days in prison I have been praying. Oh Lord grant this unworthy servant the ability to serve the faith. I am not asking for release from prison or deliverance from death. I only ask Oh Lord do enable this unworthy and sinful servant to sacrifice every particle of his body for Islam. If it is destined that I should die then grant me my wish, that along with the names of the companions of the Promised Messiah(PBUH) my name be also inscribed upon the epitaph which is placed in the Bahishti Maqbara.

Name of this servant -Naematullah Khan son of Amanullah Age 34”

After languishing many months in a Kabul dungeon and suffering indignities and cruelties too awful to contemplate on the 31st August 1924 Mullah Naematullah was finally about to hear his fate. The people of Kabul heard the sound of the beating drum that announced important events in the city. The town crier announced that the residents of Kabul were summoned to the main ground to witness the public stoning of an individual. Mullah Naematullah could also hear the drum and heard the sound of his own sentence being announced throughout the city, and yet despite this he remained stoic and calm and prepared to meet his maker. He had written all his final letters and shortly before Zuhr this young 30 old man who had the rest of his life to look forward to, and was on the cusp of his young life was led out of the dark dungeon in which he had languished for so many months. It was a bright beautiful day as he was led out from the darkness. He had been offered many opportunities to recant, but had refused all such offers. It was later said by witnesses, that as he was dragged through the streets of Kabul chained and shackled there was a look of tranquillity upon his face.

Mullah Naematullah was known for his piety throughout Kabul and many citizens of the city were witness to his diligence in observing all the fundamentals of Islam. There were many in the crowd who were troubled that such a devout, religious young man who recited the Kalima Shahida and faced Qibla whilst praying should be faced with such a fate; and yet they remained silent spectators.

For the people of Kabul this was a public spectacle and thousands had begun to gather after Zuhur in the great Maydaan with an air of excitement & expectancy. The bloodlust amongst the people as they gathered stones and rocks for the great sport was palpable. Upon arrival in the ground the still chained and shackled Mullah Naematullah sought permission from his tormentors to perform his Asar prayer. This caused much consternation but after some debate amongst the mullahs he was granted such permission. With quiet grace and equanimity this young man with a courage and bravery that is difficult to contemplate performed his prayers; whilst thousands of bloodthirsty spectators silently looked on. After completing his prayers he got up and faced his tormentors. In a loud clear voice he recited a well-known Hadith and declared to the crowd that:

“He who offers his prayers like us facing Qibla and eats meat in the prescribed manner is indeed a Muslim.” (Sahih Bukhari)

A shallow hole had been dug and the young Mullah Naematullah was buried up to the waist in that shallow hole, and the ground firmed up around him, so that he could not struggle free. A signal was given and the bloodthirsty mob made a circle around him and drew closer.

As the first stone struck Mullah Naematullah he loudly called out the Kalima Tayyaba:

“There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger.”

For as long as the rocks and stones hit his bruised and bloodied body he kept reciting these words loudly and firmly. Not one of the bloodthirsty and frenzied mob felt any shame that they were stoning to death a fellow Muslim, who was reciting the same Kalima Tayyaba that they recited. He was pelted with rocks and stones until his body were covered with rocks, and his young life was extinguished. Young Mullah Naematullah Shaheed’s suffering had come to an end and had “slipped the surly bonds of earth” and “touched the face of God”

Some days later in Peshawar Hadhrat Qazi Muhammad Yusuf Sahib received a letter. Upon opening the letter he discovered it was from Mullah Naematullah in which he had written:

“Revered Qazi Sahib,
By the time you receive this letter I will have answered the question that you posed to me during our final meeting in Peshawar.”

Like Hadhrat Imam Hussein before him Hadhrat Mullah Naeemuddin was martyred during the month of Muharram (29th),and the land of Kabul after shedding the blood of this Ahmadi martyr has flown with blood to this day.

“O land of Kabul! you are a witness to the heinous crime committed on your soil. O miserable land! you have, in the sight of Allah, been condemned as you are the scene of this most atrocious crime.” (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad)

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-- Ahmadis who stood Tall IV -Afghanistan Mullah Naematullah
-- By Munir Khan

UK: Khalifa of Islam Receives Canada's Foreign Minister at the London Mosque

2012-01-25T22:00:00.001-08:00

...[T]he Holy Qur’an taught respect for all religions to such an extent that Muslims have been ordered to not only protect their own mosques but to protect all places of worship, whether they be churches, synagogues or temples. [Mirza Masroor Ahmad]

Photo: Al Islam

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Daily Star | Canada
By The Daily Star | January 26, 2012

Canadian FM meets leader of Ahmadiyya Muslims, Mirza Masroor Ahmad

Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird MP on Tuesday visited the world head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad at the Fazl Mosque in London, said a press release.

During the meeting, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad highlighted the on going repression against the Ahmadiyyas across the globe, most notably in Pakistan where the sect faces regular religious persecution.

Update [by Ahmadiyya Times]:

The Foreign Minister said, according to the press release, that he was very concerned whenever he heard of such matters and it was against such systematic persecution that Canada envisioned the Office of Religious Freedom to act. He said that he believed that where religious freedom existed, there other rights would naturally develop.

Hadhrat Ahmad, for his part, informed the Foreign Minister that the Holy Qur’an taught respect for all religions to such an extent that Muslims have been ordered to not only protect their own mosques but to protect all places of worship, whether they be churches, synagogues or temples.

Praising the Canadian initiative of setting up 'Office of Religious Freedom' to fight religious oppression, Hadhrat Ahmad condemned these violence and called for peace.

-- Edited by Ahmadiyya Times

Read original post here: Canadian FM meets leader of Ahmadiyya

How to Integrate Europe’s Muslims

2012-01-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

This neglect of integration helped an unregulated “underground Islam” to take hold in storefronts, basements and courtyards. It reflected wishful thinking about how long guest workers would stay and perpetuated a myth of eventual departure and repatriation.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: The New York Time | Op-Ed
By Jonathan Laurence | January 23, 2012

TWO weeks ago, dozens of cars were set alight in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand after a 30-year-old truck driver, Wissam El-Yamni, was roughed up and then died while in police custody. The uproar underscored the hostility of young minority men toward authority across communities in Europe, an antipathy that has at times led to deadly violence.

The failure of Islamic integration in Europe is often attributed — especially by right-wing parties — to an excess of tolerance toward the large-scale Muslim immigration that began in the mid-1970s. By recognizing Muslim religious requirements, the argument goes, countries like France, Britain and the Netherlands have unwittingly hindered assimilation and even, in some cases, fostered radicalism. But the unrest in gritty European suburbs stems not from religious difference, but from anomie.

Europeans should not be afraid to allow Muslim students to take classes on Islam in state-financed schools and universities. The recognition and accommodation of Islamic religious practices, from clothing to language to education, does not mean capitulation to fundamentalism. On the contrary, only by strengthening the democratic rights of Muslim citizens to form associations, join political parties and engage in other aspects of civic life can Europe integrate immigrants and give full meaning to the abstract promise of religious liberty.

The rise of right-wing, anti-immigrant parties has led several European countries to impose restrictions on Islamic dress, mosque-building and reunification of families through immigration law. These policies are counterproductive. Paradoxically, people for whom religion is otherwise not all that important become more attached to their faith’s clothing, symbols and traditions when they feel they are being singled out and denied basic rights.

Take, for example, the French debate over whether to recognize the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, and the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha as official holidays. Yes, the French state clings to the principle of “laïcité,” or secularism — but the state’s recognition of Easter and Christmas as official holidays feels, to some Jews and Muslims, like hypocrisy. It is Islam’s absence in the institutions young European Muslims encounter, starting with the school’s calendar, classroom and canteen, that contributes to anger and alienation.

In the last few months, there have been some signs that the right-wing momentum has slowed. A French bill to ban headscarves from day care centers was killed in committee. The Dutch Parliament voted down a bill to outlaw Islamic animal slaughter. And Germany’s most populous state helped offset a judicial ban on school prayer by announcing equal access to religion courses for Muslim students.

European countries could use a period of benign neglect of the Islam issue — but only after they finish incorporating religion into the national fabric. For too long, they have instead masked an absence of coherent integration policy under the cloak of “multiculturalism.” The state outsourced the hard work of integration to foreign diplomats and Islamist institutions — for example, some students in Germany read Saudi-supplied textbooks in Saudi-run institutions.

This neglect of integration helped an unregulated “underground Islam” to take hold in storefronts, basements and courtyards. It reflected wishful thinking about how long guest workers would stay and perpetuated a myth of eventual departure and repatriation.

In Britain, for example, race-based equality laws protected Sikhs and Jews as minorities, but not Hindus and Muslims, since they were still considered “foreign.”

Institutional exclusion fueled a demand for religious recognition, and did much to unite and segregate Muslims. Islamist organizations became the most visible defenders of the faith. It is crucial now to provide the right mix of institutional incentives for religious and political moderation, and the most promising strategy for doing that is for governments to consult with the full range of law-abiding religious institutions that Muslims have themselves established.

The French Council for the Muslim Faith, the German Islam Conference, the Committee for Italian Islam and the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board in Britain — all state-sanctioned Islamic organizations set up in the past decade — represent a broad cross-section of mosque administrators in every country. They have quietly begun reconciling many practical issues, from issuing mosque permits to establishing Islamic theology departments at public universities to appointing chaplains in the military and in prisons.

Ultimately, however, elected democratic institutions are the place where the desires of individual Muslims should be expressed. Ever since 1789, when a French legislator argued that “the Jews should be denied everything as a nation, but granted everything as individuals,” Europeans have struggled to resolve the tension between rights derived from universal citizenship versus group membership.

Over the next 20 years, Europe’s Muslim population is projected to grow to nearly 30 million — 7 to 8 percent of all Europeans — from around 17 million. Granting Muslims full religious freedom wouldn’t remove obstacles to political participation or create jobs. But it would at least allow tensions over Muslims’ religious practices to fade. This would avoid needless sectarian strife and clear the way for politicians to address the more vexing and urgent challenges of socioeconomic integration.

Jonathan Laurence, an associate professor of political science at Boston College, is the author of “The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims: The State’s Role in Minority Integration.”

Read original post here: How to Integrate Europe’s Muslims

Sri Lanka 'expels 161 foreign Muslim preachers'

2012-01-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

A senior immigration official was quoted as saying that the clerics had no right to preach in mosques because they had arrived on tourist visas.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: BBC News
By BBC | January 22, 2012

Sri Lanka has reportedly ordered 161 foreign Muslim preachers to leave the country for flouting visa regulations.

A senior immigration official was quoted as saying that the clerics had no right to preach in mosques because they had arrived on tourist visas.

He also said that some local Muslims had complained that the visitors were not teaching a moderate form of Islam.

The preachers - from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Maldives and Arab nations - must now leave by 31 January.

'Laughable idea'

"They have violated immigration laws. A tourist visa is to have a holiday or visit friends and family, and not to preach Islam," Sri Lanka's immigration head Chulananda Perera told the AFP news agency.

Mr Perera said the group belonged to Tablighi Jamaat - an international Islamic movement popular in Sri Lanka and the region.

A Muslim source told the BBC that the movement sends groups of preachers to places of worship, urging Muslims to devote more time to their faith and act more devoutly.

Any idea that they were militant was laughable, the source added.

Muslim members of Sri Lanka's government have expressed concern at the mass expulsion, and are expected to meet other officials later on Monday to try to delay the move.

The news has also created consternation in the Muslim community in Sri Lanka, the third largest ethnic group in the country after Sinhalese and Tamils, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo reports.

During the long civil war the community was often caught between the two warring parties and it has a reputation for moderation, our correspondent adds.

Update [by Ahmadiyya Times]

Although the 'Muslim source' of BBC may may have found it 'laughable,' the Wikipedia entry about the outfit notes a possible terrorism connection.

Despite its pacifist stance, says Wikipedia, "Tabligh Jamaat has appeared on the fringes of numerous terrorism investigations."

"Tablighi Jamaat's role as a springboard to terrorist organizations has been questioned several times but there is no evidence that the Tabligh Jamaat deliberately act as a recruiting arm for Islamic militant organizations," Wikipedia wrote citing multiple sources for and against the allegation..

Read original post here: Sri Lanka 'expels 161 foreign Muslim preachers'

USA: The two faces of Muslim life in the US

2012-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

The United States can legitimately pride itself on the extent to which it is still capable of benevolently assimilating diverse peoples, creeds and cultures into its body politic.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Al Jazeera | Articles
By Robert Grenier | 23 Jan 2012

While assimilation of Muslim communities in US society is laudable, a creeping Islamophobia is undermining it.

Washington, DC - The long procession snaked around an open, hash-marked field, while an amateurish band blared and tweeted into a darkening sky. Moments before, I had sat shivering forlornly in the stands, having been importuned by friends, somewhat against my will, to attend a high-school football game on a cold December evening.

But here was something which captured my attention, a bit of Americana which I had never seen before. Each of the graduating seniors from the home team, about to play in his last game, was circling the field, accompanied by his parents. When each group of three approached mid-field, their names were read out, and the crowd cheered them in turn.

As might be expected in this Washington-area suburb, the players and their parents made for a highly diverse assemblage. But as they paraded by, my eye was drawn to one trio in particular. Their clothing, and perhaps a certain meekness in their bearing, marked the parents as recent immigrants. The gentleman was slight and bandy-legged, his wife small and plumpish, wrapped in a dark hijab. Like the other mothers, she wore over her coat the outsize football jersey of her strapping son, who loomed over his parents, the product, no doubt, of a solidly hormone-enhanced American diet. I tried to guess at their national origin when the name was announced. Persian? Afghan-Tajik? One couldn't be sure, and it really didn't matter. What mattered was the face of this woman, her shyness at the crowd's acknowledgement completely overwhelmed by beaming pride as she looked up at her son. I don't believe I have ever seen anyone more happily transported in my life.

One might be forgiven a bit of nationalistic satisfaction at a scene which underscores the American ideal, which gives testimony to the notion that here is a place where the poor, the humble and the oppressed can find refuge, a place of tolerance where the son or daughter of the humblest immigrant can find acceptance and a fair opportunity for betterment, even if he or she represents a religion or a place of origin deemed threatening by others.

That swell of satisfaction, though, had had its counterpoint earlier the same day. While on a speaking engagement in New England, I had seen a reminder in the local press of the very different reception accorded to Muslims - and specifically Muslims - who may not seem so benign, and who do not assimilate so easily into the political and cultural mainstream of the US.

The trial of Tarek Mehanna, a 29-year-old product of suburban Massachusetts and Egyptian-born parents, was drawing to a close that day in the US First District Court in Boston. Mr Mehanna, it would appear, is an angry, and perhaps troubled young man. Seized of what he regards as US misdeeds in the Middle East, he had travelled to Yemen, allegedly to seek training in "terrorist camps". Having failed to find such camps, or to gain such training, but perhaps having provided an earnest of his radical views, Tarek returned to the United States, where he contented himself instead by providing online English translations of al-Qaeda videos and texts. Such activities appear to have attracted the unfavourable attention of federal authorities. When Mehanna refused to become their informant, they were able to spin a pattern of inconsequential foreign travel and radical advocacy into a multi-count indictment, including "conspiracy to kill in a foreign country" and "providing material support to terrorists".

A few days after my Boston visit, the jury, having been treated by prosecutors to regular references to bin Laden and exposed to images of the twin towers burning, handed down its verdict: Guilty on all counts. The reaction of the prosecuting US attorney was perhaps unintentionally revealing: "Once the government learned that Mr Mehanna - of his intentions toward America, especially American soldiers, and his increasing radicalisation, to have done nothing would have been inexcusable." Yes, Tarek Mehanna's views might well eventually have gotten him into trouble of a genuinely criminal sort, absent some intervention. The prosecutor clearly went to energetic lengths to help a good young man from going bad. As a result of those efforts, Mehanna will be eligible for life imprisonment when his sentence in passed down in April, which will make it far easier for the authorities to protect him from himself.

There are right-wing blogs which conveniently provide a much more comprehensive inventory of the startlingly large number of terrorism indictments being handed down against Muslims in the US - far larger than a passing familiarity with the mainstream press would provide. Yes, there have been a small number of genuine terrorist conspiracies uncovered in the US since 2001, and yes, radicalisation in the US Muslim community is a genuine, if grossly exaggerated, concern. But one need not be either paranoid or a conspiracy theorist to wonder how it is that the vast majority of such so-called terrorism indictments lodged in the US seem to involve people who have engaged in little more than aggressive talk, and that invariably - at the centre of the purported conspiracy - is a federal informant.

To unravel this conspiracy one must take into account only two things: First, the palpable fear of Muslim radicalism afoot in the US, encouraged by certain self-interested politicians and magnified by an uncritical and sensation-seeking press; and second, that an ambitious federal prosecutor has the discretion to choose between a career of putting garden-variety bank robbers behind bars until he or she collects a pension, or making a genuine name for herself by bringing a high-profile terrorism case successfully to trial. Under the circumstances, it would not be so surprising that prosecutors might be tempted by various thinly disguised forms of entrapment.

There are many evils in the world that have at their heart bureaucratic banality. Such banality risks bringing Muslim America a half-step away from the thought police.

The United States can legitimately pride itself on the extent to which it is still capable of benevolently assimilating diverse peoples, creeds and cultures into its body politic. But the country also needs to awaken to the extent to which a creeping Islamophobia is progressively placing its freedoms, its values, its civic culture, and ultimately its security, at risk.

Robert Grenier is a retired, 27-year veteran of the CIA's Clandestine Service. He was Director of the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center from 2004 to 2006.

Former CIA station chief Robert Grenier heads ERG partners, a financial consultancy firm.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Read original post here: The two faces of Muslim life in the US

USA: NYC Police Throw Navy SEAL Into Psych Ward for Claiming…He’s a SEAL

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months, other out-of-towners, however, including a former marine, have been arrested for illegal gun possession in New York and face years in prison despite pleas for leniency.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Yahoo News |
By The Blaze | January 24, 2012

A Virginia man claimed to be a Navy SEAL to talk his way out of a gun possession arrest on Thursday, and the New York Police Department committed him to a psych ward thinking his claims of elite military status were the rantings of a lunatic.

Turns out the guy was in fact an elite Navy SEAL.

But as the New York Post put it, telling the NYPD "I'm in an elite military unit, you can't arrest me," doesn't help much when the city's draconian gun laws are at issue.

Twenty-nine-year-old Shaun Day was on a leave from his duty as a Navy SEAL duty when cops nailed him for running a red light in Manhattan, New York on Thursday.

NYPD officers searched Day's pickup truck and found a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and three magazines full of ammo.

During the arrest, police claim Day was babbling incoherently and repeatedly claimed that he was an elite Navy SEAL with “top- secret clearance,” but was unable to provide any documentation for police.

After getting shipped off to the psych ward, sources told The Post the Navy sent staffers to talk to Day in Bellevue Hospital, where he was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. According to Gothamist:

"He was released [Friday] in their care, and they were going to treat him for post-traumatic stress. All charges against Day have been deferred, and it's unclear how he was able to prove his status."

So far, the charges against Day of weapons possession and a traffic violation have been deferred.

Over the past few months, other out-of-towners, however, including a former marine, have been arrested for illegal gun possession in New York and face years in prison despite pleas for leniency.

Editor's note: The lawyer for former Marine Ryan Jerome, one of those arrested recently, joined The Blaze Editor-in-Chief Scott Baker on Friday's GBTV 'For the Record' program. Here's an excerpt from that interview:

Read original post here: NYC Police Throw Navy SEAL Into Psych Ward for Claiming…He’s a SEAL

UK: Canada’s Foreign Minister visits Head of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in London

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

His Holiness informed the Foreign Minister that the Holy Qur’an taught respect for all religions to such an extent that Muslims have been ordered to not only protect their own mosques but to protect all places of worship, whether they be churches, synagogues or temples.

Photo: Al Islam

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Press Release
By Staff reporter | January 25, 2012

How the Canadian ‘Office of Religious Freedom’ should function?

Yesterday, Canada’s Foreign Minister, John Baird MP, visited the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad at the Fazl Mosque in London.

His Excellency, Gordon Campbell, the Canadian High Commissioner to the UK and other members of staff were also present at the meeting which lasted around forty minutes.

During the meeting, the Foreign Minister mentioned how the Canadian Government was in the process of setting up an ‘Office of Religious Freedom’ and sought the views of His Holiness about how such an Office should function.
In response, His Holiness explained that Islam taught that every person should be free to practise his religion openly and without fear of discrimination. He said that irrespective of religious differences, all members of a society should live together with a spirit of unity, peace and tolerance and that this was what the Office of Religious Freedom should strive to achieve throughout the world.

His Holiness spoke about the persecution faced by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in various countries, most notably in Pakistan. Speaking about the situation there, he said, that quite apart from religious persecution, the community were deprived also of their basic civic rights. His Holiness said:

“In Pakistan all Ahmadi Muslims are denied their basic rights. We are unable to call ourselves Muslims or use Islamic terms. My name is Masroor, but in Pakistan if somebody calls me this, then that person can be arrested and punished. Thus such laws that persecute and curtail basic rights must be changed. It is essential that religious views should not impact or interfere with Government policies.”

The Foreign Minister said that he was very concerned whenever he heard of such matters and it was against such systematic persecution that Canada envisioned the Office of Religious Freedom to act. He said that he believed that where religious freedom existed, there other rights would naturally develop.

Photo: Al Islam

His Holiness also used the meeting to praise Western efforts to promote religious freedom and he said that in particular Canada deserved praise for this. He said that the efforts of the Canadian government to promote integration and religious tolerance had led to the Fourth Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat to once remark that he hoped the entire world would become like Canada. In response the Foreign Minister said that Canada truly valued the benefits of having a relatively open immigration system.

His Holiness mentioned that when he last visited Canada in 2008, he was very grateful that Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended the opening of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat’s new mosque in Calgary and indeed the Prime Minister even delayed his departure for an international summit in Japan so that he could take part in the event.

His Holiness also informed the Foreign Minister that the Holy Qur’an taught respect for all religions to such an extent that Muslims have been ordered to not only protect their own mosques but to protect all places of worship, whether they be churches, synagogues or temples.

Read original post here: Canada’s Foreign Minister visits Head of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in London

Sharia Law: Coming to a Courthouse near you?

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

My study of Muslim marriage and divorce among North America shows that American Muslims are unanimous in their opinion that the courts have no role to play in the enforcement of their private sharia obligations, which they regard as a matter for their private conscience.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: British Council | Blog
By Julie Macfarlane | January 20, 2012

Public fears and ignorance about sharia law have led to a series of state referenda in the U.S. that would ban state courts from considering or using Islamic law, if passed. One of the first states to pass such an amendment after a public referendum was Oklahoma, where a 70 percent majority passed a ballot proposal to “forbid courts from looking at international law or sharia law when deciding cases” in November 2010.

The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations immediately brought a legal challenge, arguing that the amendment discriminated against Muslims by singling out the tenets of their faith. A federal court judge then issued an injunction to stall the judgment from going into effect, and now a federal appeals court has upheld her decision. The judgment of the Court of Appeals 10th Circuit Court was unanimous, concluding that such an amendment would amount to discriminatory treatment of a particular religious tradition.

The appeals court addressed two problems with the amendment: the fact that it singles out Islam and not the law of any other religion, and the failure of the appellants to show any actual (rather than speculative and imagined) harm. The appellants could not provide a single example of an Oklahoma court applying sharia law.
Do not expect any successful reopening of the legal issues here any time soon. Efforts to draft amendments in other states that avoid one of the problems with the Oklahoma amendment – by referring more generally to international law and not singling out sharia – are also unlikely to be successful because they ban the courts from not only applying but even considering sharia, or any other international law. In fact, courts consider (but do not apply) other laws all the time: for example, when a contract has been originally been drawn up in another country or when freely contracting parties have agreed to apply any set of principles they choose to their future disputes.

It is common sense that courts must be able to consider the context (for example a commercial agreement in which the parties agree to be bound by the law of another jurisdiction, or a domestic contract in which spouses agree to marry or divorce on certain terms) in order to understand the original expectations and intentions of the parties, and reach a just decision based on American law. Any amendment prohibiting state courts from considering other laws would undermine this fundamental operating principle of American jurisprudence.

More important to understand is the complete lack of substance behind the so-called “moral panic” generated by the proponents of the nationwide campaign to “ban sharia law.” In Oklahoma, the amendment was dubbed the “Save Our State” amendment and its proponents claimed repeatedly to the news media that there was a real and present danger of Oklahoma courts applying sharia.

Even the anti-sharia movement itself cannot substantiate any such claim. Take, for example, the Center for Security Policy, a major proponent of the claim that federal courts are applying sharia law. A closer look at their analysis of 20 federal cases actually found that in 19 of the cases, American civil courts placed extraordinarily high thresholds on orders made in Muslim jurisdictions, or contracts or agreements involving Muslim parties that referred to Islamic law. Just one case in this group generates real concern – the refusal of a New Jersey criminal court in 2010 to issue a restraining order against a Muslim man on the grounds that he believed that he had the right to non-consensual sex with his wife (an interpretation of Islamic law that most Muslim scholars would challenge today). What the analysis does not mention is that this order was reversed almost immediately on appeal and a restraining order issued.

So what’s the real story here? It’s not that the courts are applying sharia – but that American Muslims who use the courts find little or no acknowledgement there of the importance and vitality of their Islamic customs and principles. My study of Muslim marriage and divorce among North America shows that American Muslims are unanimous in their opinion that the courts have no role to play in the enforcement of their private sharia obligations, which they regard as a matter for their private conscience. In U.S. courts, a marriage or divorce agreement that makes any reference to Islam will be disregarded. This means that women cannot enforce agreements to pay them a mahr, or marriage dowry. As a practical matter, this creates considerable personal hardship for some women and is far more deserving of our attention than baseless assertions over the “coming of sharia law” to our courthouses.

Read original post here: Sharia Law: Coming to a Courthouse near you?

Muslims flying the flag for Australia Day

2012-01-25T04:00:00.000-08:00

...[L]ocal people had expressed interest in the organisation and members were excited that the wider community would get an opportunity to gain a better understanding of what the group was about.

Photo: Peninsula Weekly / Daryl Gordon

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Peninsula Weekly
By Peninsula Weekly | January 25, 2012

Imran, Fakhar, Abdul and Nasir of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association got into the true-blue spirit last week in preparation for their Australia Day celebration day this Sunday.

Event co-ordinator Naureen Choudhry said the association was looking forward to opening its Langwarrin doors and were inviting the Mornington Peninsula and Frankston communities to share the celebrations and learn more about the Ahmadiyya Muslims.

She said local people had expressed interest in the organisation and members were excited that the wider community would get an opportunity to gain a better understanding of what the group was about.

"We felt this enthusiasm and thought we'd capitalise on it to make some friends and share our culture."

The open day will include a formal program from 11am, followed by a social hour, including a barbecue and henna tattoo stall.

The event will be held at the Ahmadiyya Centre, 6 Leisureland Drive, Langwarrin. Details: Naureen on 9704 6857 or Imran, 0432 245 382.

Read original post here: Flying the flag for Australia Day

Afghanistan: Little Progress on Rights; Conditions Dire, Especially for Women

2012-01-25T01:00:00.001-08:00

Infant mortality and maternal mortality remain among the highest in the world, with one in ten children dying before age five, and a woman dying of pregnancy-related causes approximately every two hours. Under-age marriage and forced marriage are widespread.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Human Rights Watch
By HRW | January 24, 2012

(New York) – The dire human rights situation in Afghanistan showed few signs of progress in the past year, raising serious concerns about the future, Human Right Watch said today in its World Report 2012.

While progress was made in Afghanistan in several areas, the general population and women in particular suffered from the widespread lawlessness and abuses by the security forces and armed groups, Human Rights Watch said. International “donor fatigue” and the planned drawdown of international troops in 2014 raise the prospect of further deterioration and backtracking in key areas.

“The snail’s pace of human rights improvement over the past year heightens anxieties about Afghanistan’s future,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Basic rights are still not a reality for most Afghans. The country suffers from abuses without accountability, lack of rule of law, poor governance, laws and policies that harm women, attacks on civilians, and corruption.”

In its 676-page report, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined. Given the violent forces resisting the “Arab Spring,” the international community has an important role to play in assisting the formation of rights-respecting democracies in the region, Human Rights Watch said in the report.

In Afghanistan, women’s rights are of particular concern, Human Rights Watch said. Since the defeat of Taliban rule in 2001, Afghan women have taken on more leadership roles, as members of parliament, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, police officers, soldiers, civil society officials, and human rights activists. But many have been targeted for threats and violence.

Ordinary Afghan women lack many basic protections, Human Rights Watch said. The Taliban and other armed groups attack and threaten women, frequently focusing on women in public life, school girls, and the staff of girls’ schools. The government incarcerates women and girls for “moral crimes” such as running away from home – even when there is no statutory prohibition. Infant mortality and maternal mortality remain among the highest in the world, with one in ten children dying before age five, and a woman dying of pregnancy-related causes approximately every two hours. Under-age marriage and forced marriage are widespread.

Recent reforms, like the 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women, have largely failed to improve the lives of ordinary women, as the government is not enforcing its provisions, Human Rights Watch said.

Afghanistan’s justice system remains weak and compromised, and a large proportion of the population relies instead on traditional justice mechanisms to resolve disputes. Corruption in the courts and police have cut off many Afghans from justice. The January 2012transfer of Afghanistan’s prisons to the Interior Ministry reversed an important 2003 reform and increases the risk of torture of prisoners. Documentation in 2011 of systematic and widespread torture in Afghan detention facilities shows the failings of past reform efforts. Human rights abuses are endemic within the traditional justice system, with many practices persisting despite being outlawed, including baad, the practice of handing over a girl to another family to resolve a dispute.

The Afghan government and its international allies have not addressed the longstanding security problems created by abusive regional commanders and militias, Human Rights Watch said. Regional commanders who have been implicated in serious abuses benefit from US military support to strengthen their control of local populations at the expense of human rights. A US-supported “Afghan Local Police”program has a created a new kind of local militia without sufficient training, oversight or accountability. US plans to triple the size of the Afghan Local Police heighten concerns that this force will worsen the security situation.

The Afghan government has repeatedly squandered opportunities to hold government or militia leaders responsible for abuses committed under their command, Human Rights Watch said. The 2005 Action Plan for Peace, Reconciliation and Justice has never been implemented, and no serious efforts have been made to prosecute high-level officials for corruption and other abuses. No progress has been made on seeking accountability for abuses committed before late 2001, whether during the Soviet period, the civil conflict of the early and mid-1990s, or the Taliban period.

“Afghans want justice and an accounting for the abuses of the past,” Adams said. “Yet the Afghan government and its backers, particularly the US, have not only ignored these calls but empowered the same warlords and power brokers who brought the country so much pain. Accountability is an important element of a lasting peace.”

Conflict-related abuses are a daily reality in many parts of the country. During the past decade, thousands of Afghans have suffered as a result of violations of international humanitarian law by insurgent forces, militias, and Afghan government and international forces.

The Taliban and other insurgent forces have committed widespread violations, in particular bombings that target civilians, and other attacks that do not discriminate between military targets and civilians. The Taliban have also used children as young as 8 years old as suicide bombers. All sides have mistreated people in their custody. Large areas of the country, especially the south, are now held by insurgent forces, who frequently violate human rights. Other areas are lawless zones in which no real governance exists.

Human Rights Watch called on the Afghan government to make human rights a top priority and on Afghanistan’s international partners to make a long-term commitment to support human rights, the security of the population, and development in Afghanistan.

“The Afghan government needs to recognize the link between respect for human rights and the security of the population,” Adams said. “The government and its international partners should redouble their commitments to supporting accountability, justice reform, women’s rights, education and health, and civil society.”

Read original post here: Afghanistan: Little Progress on Rights

Pakistan: Court Widens Role, Stirring Fears for Stability

2012-01-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

“The judges are not elected representatives of the people and they are arrogating power to themselves as if they are the only sanctimonious institution in the country. All dictators fall prey to this psyche — that only we are clean, and capable of doing the right thing.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The New York Times
By Declan Walsh | January 22, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Once they were heroes, cloaked justices at the vanguard of a powerful revolt against military rule in Pakistan, buoyed by pugnacious lawyers and an adoring public. But now Pakistan’s Supreme Court is waging a campaign of judicial activism that has pitted it against an elected civilian government, in a legal fight that many Pakistanis fear could damage their fragile democracy and open the door to a fresh military intervention.

From an imposing, marble-clad court on a hill over Islamabad, and led by an iron-willed chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the judges have since 2009 issued numerous rulings that have propelled them into areas traditionally dominated by government here. The court has dictated the price of sugar and fuel, championed the rights of transsexuals, and, quite literally, directed the traffic in the coastal megalopolis of Karachi.

But in recent weeks the court has taken interventionism to a new level, inserting itself as the third player in a bruising confrontation between military and civilian leaders at a time when Pakistan — and the United States — urgently needs stability in Islamabad to face a dizzying array of threats.

Judges say their expanded mandate comes from the people, dating back to the struggle against the military rule of Gen. Pervez Musharraf that began in 2007, eventually helping to pry him from power. Memories linger of those heady days, when bloodied lawyers clashed with riot police officers, and judges were garlanded and paraded as virtual saints.

In recent months, however, the Supreme Court has ventured deep into political peril in two different cases. Last week, as part of a high-stakes corruption case, it summoned Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to testify in court under threat of contempt charges that, if carried to conviction, could leave him jailed and ejected from office.

The court has also begun an inquiry into a scandal known here as Memogate, a shadowy affair with touches of soap-opera drama that has engulfed the political system since November. It has claimed the job of Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States and now threatens other senior figures in the civilian government, under accusations that officials sought American help to head off a potential military coup.

Propelled by accounts of secret letters, text messages and military plots, the scandal has in recent days focused on a music video featuring bikini-clad female wrestlers that is likely to be entered as evidence of immorality on the part of the central protagonist, Mansoor Ijaz, an American businessman of Pakistani origin.

Hearings resume Tuesday when Mr. Ijaz is due to give evidence. The fact that the courts have become the arena for such lurid political theater has reignited criticism, some from once-staunch allies, that the Supreme Court is worryingly overstepping its mark.

“In the long run this is a very dangerous trend,” said Muneer A. Malik, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association who campaigned for Justice Chaudhry in 2007. “The judges are not elected representatives of the people and they are arrogating power to themselves as if they are the only sanctimonious institution in the country. All dictators fall prey to this psyche — that only we are clean, and capable of doing the right thing.”

The court’s supporters counter that it is reinforcing democracy in the face of President Asif Ali Zardari’s corrupt and inept government. On Saturday, Justice Chaudhry pushed back against the critics.

The court’s goal was to “buttress democratic and parliamentary norms,” he told a gathering of lawyers in Karachi. Deep-rooted corruption was curtailing justice in Pakistan, he added.

“Destiny of our institution is in our own hands,” he said.

Mr. Chaudhry was appointed to the Supreme Court under General Musharraf in 2000. Two years later he wrote a judgment that absolved the military ruler for his 1999 coup. But Mr. Chaudhry shocked his patron and his country seven years later with decrees that challenged General Musharraf’s pre-eminence. Senior security officials were ordered to track down individuals being illegally held by the military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, in some cases working with the F.B.I. and C.I.A. The privatization of state companies came under sharp scrutiny.

Then, on March 9, 2007, General Musharraf tried to fire Justice Chaudhry and placed him under house arrest. Protesting lawyers rushed into the streets in support of the chief justice. New cable television channels broadcast images of the tumult across the country. Power drained from General Musharraf, who resigned 18 months later.

The euphoria was soon tempered, however, by growing tensions with the new government. Mr. Zardari hesitated to reinstate Mr. Chaudhry, believing that he was too close to his political rivals and the military.

The standoff led to fresh street protests in 2009, led by the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. That March, amid dramatic scenes that included a threatened march on the capital, Mr. Zardari relented and Justice Chaudhry returned to the bench.

Within months, the Supreme Court had cleared the way for the possible prosecution of Mr. Zardari in a Swiss corruption case dating to the 1990s. The government cited Mr. Zardari’s presidential immunity, and argued, along with some international analyst groups, that the court was specifically targeting the president.

But among the wider public, the court was winning broad support. It engaged in a series of muscular interventions to champion the cause of ordinary Pakistanis, some of which broke new ground. Judges expanded the civil rights of hijras, transgendered people who traditionally suffered discrimination, called senior bureaucrats and police officials to account, halted business ventures that contravened planning laws, including a McDonald’s restaurant in Islamabad and a German supermarket in Karachi, and issued a decree against the destruction of trees along a major road in Lahore.

The court’s populist bent has infuriated the government but won cheers from urban, middle-class Pakistanis — the same people who had supported the lawyers’ drive against General Musharraf. Largely young, frustrated by traditional politics and angered by official graft, they constitute a political class that has in recent months flocked to Imran Khan, the cricket star turned politician who is enjoying a sudden surge in popularity, and is a strong defender of the judiciary.

But the court’s activism has also taken many erratic turns. Justice Chaudhry has fought trenchant battles to win control of judicial appointments, a process traditionally in the government’s purview. While the judiciary has vigorously pursued Mr. Zardari, it absolved Mr. Sharif of his alleged crimes. And critics accuse Mr. Chaudhry of failing to reform the chaotic lower courts, which remain plagued by long backlogs. “Three years after the restitution of the chief justice, the delivery of justice remains as poor as it has ever been,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, of Human Rights Watch.

The gravest charges, though, swirl around the memo scandal. Mr. Ijaz claims to hold an unsigned memorandum showing that Mr. Zardari’s government sought covert United States government help to avert a military coup in the poisonous aftermath of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.

But the memo’s provenance is unclear and Mr. Ijaz’s credibility has come under assault in the news media. Last week a music video that went viral on the Internet showed Mr. Ijaz acting as the ringside commentator in a wrestling contest between two bikini-clad women and that, in one version, featured full nudity — a shocking sight in conservative Pakistan.

The furor, which made front-page news, injected a fresh sense of absurdity into proceedings that already were under question, and that many here insist would never have started without military intervention: the Supreme Court ordered the inquiry on Dec. 30 at the direct request of the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the ISI director general, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who harbor little love for Mr. Zardari. Also, the court ignored other claims by Mr. Ijaz that the army secretly sheltered Bin Laden, and sought outside support to mount a coup — acts that, if proven, could be equally treasonous.

Suspicions about the court’s impartiality were renewed last Friday, when Mr. Chaudhry ordered the government to disclose whether it intended to fire General Kayani or General Pasha — even though such decisions are normally the government’s prerogative.

The titanic three-way struggle among generals, judges and politicians comes at a time when Pakistan has become increasingly chaotic. Taliban insurgents continue to roam the northwest, the economy is in dire straits and urgently needed reforms in education, health and other social sectors have been largely ignored.

From the standpoint of the United States, the deadlock has diverted the spotlight from military airstrikes that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers in November and brought the two countries’ troubled relationship to a new low. But it has also drawn attention away from a pressing priority of the United States in Pakistan: engaging cooperation here to help negotiate a peace settlement with the Afghan Taliban as a major troop withdrawal slated for 2014 draws near.

“In the midst of this institutional wrangling, nobody has a clear plan as to how politics or foreign policy are going to move forward, said Dr. Paula Newberg of Georgetown University, who has written a book about Pakistani constitutional politics. “Pakistan could easily have a much brighter future. But it gets itself worn down by these incessant disputes about where power lies.”

Read original post here: Pakistan Court Widens Role, Stirring Fears for Stability

Indonesia: Sectarian violence has surged, HRW report says

2012-01-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

Even in the deadly attack against an Ahmadiyah community in February 2011, when three Ahmadis were killed, attackers were only sentenced to short prison terms of between three and six months for disturbing public order, incitement and assault.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Post
By TJP | January 24, 2012

Throughout 2011, Indonesian authorities used excessive force against peaceful protesters in easternmost Papua and stood aside while mobs attacked religious minorities in Java and Sumatra, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2012.

The Indonesian government should release all detainees held for peacefully expressing views opposing the government, mainly Papuan and Moluccan activists, Human Rights Watch said. The government should also thoroughly investigate and prosecute violence against religious and ethnic minorities.

“Police violence in Papua and attacks on religious minorities got a lot worse in 2011,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement on Monday. “The common thread is the failure of the Indonesian government to protect the rights of all its citizens.”

In October, police used excessive force while arresting more than 300 Papuans involved in a three-day Papuan Congress in Jayapura, the provincial capital. At least three men died and more than 90 were injured. No police officers were disciplined but five Papuan leaders were charged with treason.

Further more, Human Rights Watch noted that incidents of violence against religious minorities became more deadly and frequent during 2011, as Islamist militants mobilized mobs to attack religious minorities. Short prison terms for a handful of offenders had no impact on the widespread impunity for those responsible for the worst offenses. The government did not revoke several decrees that discriminate against minority religions, fostering public intolerance.

Islamist mobs attacked members of the Ahmadiyah religious community and their mosques in 14 locations, including West Java, Banten and South Sulawesi. Even in the deadly attack against an Ahmadiyah community in February 2011, when three Ahmadis were killed, attackers were only sentenced to short prison terms of between three and six months for disturbing public order, incitement and assault. They were not convicted of manslaughter. Police did not conduct thorough investigations, and prosecutors did not call key witnesses, including a man who videotaped the attack.

Islamists also attacked three Christian churches in Temanggung, Central Java, in February after a district court convicted a controversial preacher of blasphemy. In January 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that a Presbyterian church known locally as GKI Yasmin should be reopened, overturning a Bogor administration ruling by the city government to revoke the church’s building permit. Mayor Diani Budiarto refused to comply, and government ministers have offered the church “relocation”.

“Incidents of sectarian violence are no longer isolated cases in Indonesia, but are taking place at an alarming rate,” Pearson said. “The Indonesian government needs to reverse course and start prosecuting violence against religious minorities and replace the discriminatory regulations that only encourage such attacks.”

Read original post here: HRW: Sectarian violence has surged in RI

Fiji: Ahmadiyya Youth, Humanity First join in helping flood victims

2012-01-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

The Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Fiji is working in conjunction with Humanity First, an International Voluntary and Charity organization founded by the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times
By Staff reporter | January 24, 2012

Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya, the youth wing of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat catered lunch and dinner for over 270 flood stricken people whose houses and belongings are all underwater.

The flood victim have been taking shelter at the St. Andrews Primary School in Nadi since the 23rd of January.

“The number of people is still increasing as the water levels rise tremendously,” said Ashfaaq Ahmad Khan, national president of Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya, Fiji.

“The evacuees at the St. Andrews Primary School have nothing much with them in terms of food and clothing,” Ashfaaq Ahmad Khan added.

The Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Fiji is working in conjunction with Humanity First, an International Voluntary and Charity organization founded by the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

The aim of Humanity First, explains their website, "is to relieve suffering caused by natural disaster and human conflict, promote peace and understanding, and strengthen people’s capacity to help themselves."

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community firmly believes that “Service to Mankind is Service to God” as this is the motto of Humanity First International.

-- Ahmadiyya Times
-- Edited by Imran Jattala

Eye on history: The early Church never celebrated Christmas - An explanation

2012-01-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

“And the pains of child-birth drove her unto the trunk of a palm-tree. She said, ‘O, would that had died before this and had become a thing quite forgotten.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Lanka Web
By A. Abdul Aziz | January 22, 2012

This is in reference an article titled above (Sunday Times – PLUS – 25.12.2011 by Rev. Brian D. Blacker), in which the writer indirectly accept the birth of Jesus Christ did not take place in December 25. Instead, he keeps on mentioning the celebration of Christmas. In open words we can say Jesus did not born on December 25. In support of this view, let me elaborate further for the benefit of the readers.

Was Jesus (Prophet Isa – alaihissalam – peace be on him) born on December 25th? According to the Holy Qur’an, the birth of Jesus took place at a time when fresh dates are found on palm-trees in Judaea. That season evidently is in the month of August-September, but, accordingly to the view generally held by Christians, Jesus was born on 25th December which day is celebrated all over the Christian world every year with great fervor.
Now this Christian view is contradicted not only by the Quran but also by history and even by the New Testament itself. Writing about the time of Jesus’s birth, Luke says; “And there were shepherds in the same country (Judaea) abiding in the field and keeping watch by night over their flocks”. (Luke: 2; 7,8) Commenting on this statement of Luke, Bishop Barns in his famous book, ‘The Rice of Christianity’, on page 79 says: “There is, moreover, no authority for the belief that December 25 was the actual birthday of Jesus.

If we can give any credence to the birth-story of Luke, with the shepherds keeping watch by night in the field near Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus did not take place in winter when the night temperature is so low in the hill country of Judaea that snow is not uncommon. After much argument our Christian day seems to have been accepted about A.D.300’. This view of Bishop Barns is supported by Encyclopedia Britannica and Chambers Encyclopedia under ‘Christmas’. Moreover, in his book ‘Commentary on the Bible’ on page 727, Peake says: ‘The season (of Jesus’s birth) would not be December; our Christmas day is a comparatively late tradition found first in the West’.

In his ‘Dictionary of the Bible’ Dr. John D. Davis, under the word, “Year” writes that dates become ripe in the month of Elul corresponds to the months of August-September. From the above records, the fact becomes quite clear that Jesus was born in the Jewish month of Elul which corresponds to the months of August-September when dates ripen in Judaea, and not on December 25th as the Christian Church would have us believe. And that is the view which is expressed by the Holy Qur’an (19: 24 – 26). It says:

“And the pains of child-birth drove her unto the trunk of a palm-tree. She said, ‘O, would that had died before this and had become a thing quite forgotten.”

”Then the angel called her from beneath her saying, ‘Grieve not. Thy Lord has placed a rivulet below thee; ‘And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree; it will drop upon thee fresh ripe dates”.

As it appears from the Gospels, there was no room in the inn in which Jesus was in Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary must have stayed in the open field and Mary might have betaken herself to the trunk of a palm-tree in order to take rest under its shade and possibly also to find some support in her throes of child-birth, as Holy Qur’an states.

Read original post here: The early Church never celebrated Christmas – An explanation.

Pakistan: There was nothing to cherish in 2011

2012-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

“Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the provincial high courts effectively muzzled media criticism of the judiciary in 2011 through threats of contempt of court proceedings, as has been the case since Pakistan’s independent judiciary was restored to office in 2009.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Pakistan Today
By Pakistan Today | January 23, 2012

KARACHI - Karachi experienced an exceptionally high level of violence during the year and around 800 citizens were killed in the city during 2011, disclosed the Human Rights Watch (HRW) Report 2011 issued on Monday. According to the report prepared by the international group with offices in different countries, the year 2011 brought much misery to the nation with a natural disaster in the shape of the monsoon floods in Sindh, the increasing disappearances of citizens of Balochistan and at least six journalists killed. It was pointed out in the report that the killings in Karachi were perpetrated by armed groups patronised by the political parties in the city. “A Karachi-based party, with heavily armed cadres and a well-documented history of human rights abuse and political violence, was widely viewed as the major perpetrator of targeted killings,” it was pointed out in the report.

“Despite an October 6 Supreme Court ruling calling for an end to the violence in Karachi, the authorities took no meaningful measures to hold perpetrators accountable.”
The HRW said suicide bombings, armed attacks, and killings by the Taliban, al Qaeda, and their affiliates targeted nearly every sector of Pakistani society, including journalists and religious minorities, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The report also disclosed the details of the increasing attacks on civilians by militant groups, skyrocketing food and fuel prices, and the assumption of near-total control of foreign and security policy by a military that operated with complete impunity.

“Religious minorities faced unprecedented insecurity and persecution. Freedom of belief and expression came under severe threat as Islamist militant groups murdered Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and Federal Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti over their public support for amending the country’s often abused blasphemy laws. Pakistan’s elected government notably failed to provide protection to those threatened by extremists, or to hold the extremists accountable.” In August and September, the province of Sindh experienced massive flooding for the second year running, displacing some 700,000 people. The report also mentioned that the relations between Pakistan and the US deteriorated markedly in 2011, fueled by a diplomatic crisis over a CIA contractor killing two men at a Lahore traffic junction and the US’s killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Conditions markedly deteriorated in the mineral-rich province of Balochistan. Human Rights Watch documented continued “disappearances” and an upsurge in killings of suspected Baloch militants and opposition activists by the military, intelligence agencies, and the paramilitary Frontier Corps. Baloch nationalists and other militant groups also stepped up attacks on non-Baloch civilians, teachers, and education facilities, as well as against security forces in the province. Pakistan’s military continued to publicly resist government reconciliation efforts and attempts to locate ethnic Baloch who had been subject to “disappearances.” The government appeared powerless to rein in the military’s abuses. The HRW stated that at least 200 Baloch nationalist activists including Abdul Ghaffar Lango, a prominent Baloch nationalist activist, and Hanif Baloch, an activist with the Baloch Students Organisation (Azad) were killed during the year, as well as dozens of new cases of disappearances.

The Shia and other vulnerable groups were also attacked across the country.

“In 2001, Aasia Bibi, a Christian from Punjab province, became the first woman in the country’s history to be sentenced to death for blasphemy. She continued to languish in prison after the Lahore High Court, in a controversial move, prevented President Asif Ali Zardari from granting her a pardon in November 2010. High-ranking officials of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party called for her release and the amendment of section 295(C) of Pakistan’s penal code, otherwise known as the blasphemy law. However, the government succumbed to pressure from extremist groups and dropped the proposed amendment.”

The HRW also stated members of the Ahmadi community continued to be a major target for blasphemy prosecutions and are subjected to specific anti-Ahmadi laws across the country.

In November, four Hindus, three of them doctors, were killed in an attack by religious extremists in the town of Shikarpur in Sindh, sending shockwaves through the minority community. Disclosing details on women rights, the HRW said mistreatment of women - including rape, domestic violence, and forced marriage - remains a serious problem. Public intimidation of, and threats to, women by religious extremists increased in major cities in 2011. The human rights group also said in its report that at least six journalists including Saleeem Shahzad, a reporter for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online and the Italian news agency Adnkronos International, Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar who was shot and killed in Karachi shortly after covering gang violence in the city and Tribal Union of Journalists President Nasrullah Khan Afridi, onlinenews agency reporter Munir Ahmed Shakir, Javed Naseer Rind, a sub-editor with the Urdu-language Daily Tawar were killed in 2011.

“Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the provincial high courts effectively muzzled media criticism of the judiciary in 2011 through threats of contempt of court proceedings, as has been the case since Pakistan’s independent judiciary was restored to office in 2009,” it was stated in the report. “In a positive development, journalists, who are vocally critical of the government, experienced less interference by elected officials than in previous years.”

Read original post here: There was nothing for Pakistan to cherish in 2011

UK: Extremist faction protests over moderate Muslim exhibition in Huddersfield

2012-01-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

“I consider myself a Muslim as do my colleagues. We believe in the Holy Book and the Holy Prophet but if someone considers me not to be a Muslim he is entitled to his opinion. We live in a country with freedom of speech and expression.”

A similar Ahmadiyya Muslim Quran exhibition was protested by extremists
in India as well.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
By January 24, 2012

ANGRY Muslims in Huddersfield have denounced a group in the town.

They claim that the Ahmadiyya Muslims are not true Muslims and have condemned them for hosting an exhibition of the Holy Koran.

The criticism has come from the Kirklees Muslims Action Committee, which claims to represent more than 15,000 Muslims across the district.

But a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association insisted they had no gripe with the Action Committee and said they were entitled to hold their own views.

Action Committee members held a peaceful protest as the exhibition was held at Huddersfield Town Hall, organised by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, which has a base at Fartown and in Huddersfield.

The organisers invited the Mayor of Kirklees Clr Eric Firth and Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney to the exhibition.

But Mr Amar Usman Ali, a spokesman for the Action Committee, said they were offended by the event.

“We believe that it is time the Muslims of Huddersfield did not allow a local group to use our name to hold any future exhibitions, and have been hurt and deeply upset over the lack of consultation with the Muslim community prior to holding this event.

“Whilst we do not expect the community to be sympathetic we would like to clarify our position on this group.

“The World Muslim League in April 1974 declared that the Ahmadiyya are falsely claiming to be an Islamic sect.

“The Koran is the holy book of the Muslims and it should be patently obvious to all that matters concerning Muslims such as an exhibition should be left to the Muslims themselves.”

Mr Fatih Ul-Haq, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyyas, said: “We spoke to the people taking part in the protest and they are entitled to their views.

“We want to live in peace and harmony with all the community and we do not want to have disagreements with any group.

“The Koran is a book for everyone and that was one of the reasons we organised the exhibition.

“I consider myself a Muslim as do my colleagues. We believe in the Holy Book and the Holy Prophet but if someone considers me not to be a Muslim he is entitled to his opinion.

“We live in a country with freedom of speech and expression”.

Read original post here: UK: Protests over Muslim exhibition in Huddersfield

Afghanistan: Ancient Jewish scrolls found in north

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

The 150 or so documents, dated from the 11th century, were found in Afghanistan's Samangan province and most likely smuggled out -- a sorry but common fate for the impoverished and war-torn country's antiquities.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Reuters | Yahoo News
By Amie Ferris-Rotman | January 23, 2012

KABUL (Reuters) - A cache of ancient Jewish scrolls from northern Afghanistan that has only recently come to light is creating a storm among scholars who say the landmark find could reveal an undiscovered side of medieval Jewry.

The 150 or so documents, dated from the 11th century, were found in Afghanistan's Samangan province and most likely smuggled out -- a sorry but common fate for the impoverished and war-torn country's antiquities.

Israeli emeritus professor Shaul Shaked, who has examined some of the poems, commercial records and judicial agreements that make up the treasure, said while the existence of ancient Afghan Jewry is known, their culture was still a mystery.

"Here, for the first time, we see evidence and we can actually study the writings of this Jewish community. It's very exciting," Shaked told Reuters by telephone from Israel, where he teaches at the Comparative Religion and Iranian Studies department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The hoard is currently being kept by private antique dealers in London, who have been producing a trickle of new documents over the past two years, which is when Shaked believes they were found and pirated out of Afghanistan in a clandestine operation.

It is likely they belonged to Jewish merchants on the Silk Road running across Central Asia, said T. Michael Law, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford University's Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

"They might have been left there by merchants travelling along the way, but they could also come from another nearby area and deposited for a reason we do not yet understand," Law said.

"SOLD ELSEWHERE FOR TEN TIMES MORE"

Cultural authorities in Kabul had mixed reactions to the find, which scholars say is without a doubt from Afghanistan, arguing that the Judeo-Persian language used on the scrolls is similar to other Afghan Jewish manuscripts.

National Archives director Sakhi Muneer outright denied the find was Afghan, arguing that he would have seen it, but an advisor in the Culture Ministry said it "cannot be confirmed but it is entirely possible."

"A lot of old documents and sculptures are not brought to us but are sold elsewhere for ten times the price," said advisor Jalal Norani, explaining that excavators and ordinary people who stumble across finds sell them to middlemen who then auction them off in Iran, Pakistan and Europe.

"Unfortunately, we cannot stop this," Norani said. The Culture Ministry, he said, pays on average $1,500 for a recovered antique item. The Hebrew University's Shaked estimated the Jewish documents' worth at several million dollars.

Thirty years of war and conflict have severely hindered both the collecting and preserving of Afghanistan's antiquities, and the Culture Ministry said endemic corruption and poverty meant many new discoveries do not even reach them.

Interpol and U.S. officials have also traced looted Afghan antiquities to funding insurgent activities.

In today's climate of uncertainty, the National Archives in Kabul keep the bulk of its enormous collection of documents -- some dating to the fifth century -- under lock and key to prevent stealing.

Instead reproductions of gold-framed Pashto poems and early Korans scribed on deer skin, or vellum, are displayed for the public under the ornate ceilings of the Archives, which were the nineteenth century offices of Afghan King Habibullah Khan.

"I am sure Afghanistan, like any country, would like to control their antiquities... But on the other hand, with this kind of interest and importance, as a scholar I can't say that I would avoid studying them," said Shaked of the Jewish find.

(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Rob Taylor and Sanjeev Miglani)

Read original post here: Ancient Jewish scrolls found in north Afghanistan

Faith and practice: Parents should lead by examples

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

...[T]he role of a father in upbringing of a child is not less important than mother. And for the better future of a child the role of both parents is highly essential and important and both the parents should set positive and valuable examples for their children.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | EU Desk
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Malta
By Laiq Ahmed Atif | January 21, 2012

“The mother’s lap is the first school for every child”. And in fact, it is the woman as mother who is the moulder of the moral values of her child. It is considered that the child’s first knowledge of moral values and behaviour patterns is learnt from his mother, and as a child is fully dependant on mother and sees the way she acts, thus the love, care, education and responsibilities she teaches her child and the values modes that are incorporated within the family form the personality and character of the child.

However, the role of a father in upbringing of a child is not less important than mother. And for the better future of a child the role of both parents is highly essential and important and both the parents should set positive and valuable examples for their children.

Every parent wants their children to be successful people, to be outstanding people in society, to have a good job and a better life. And it is also true that almost all children, regardless of their age, pick parents as their number one role model. So see, how important is it for the parents to lead by examples and become a real role model for their children.

Research has found that the best adjusted children, particularly in terms of social competence, have parents with an authoritative, moderate parenting style. These parents are able to balance clearly stated, high demands with emotional responsiveness and respect for their child’s autonomy. And children with disturbed and troubled family life are more likely to involve in crimes and drugs and they do not have the capabilities to compete and contribute positively in society.

This reminds me of a joke which clearly shows that how parents set examples to their children and how children learn and form themselves while seeing their parents. It is not only a joke but also a very sad and painful reality which may make some people laugh yet move some others to tears. However, the aim is to show that parent’s attitude has a great influence on their children.

Once a child observed with much pain and unease the ill-treatment of his grandfather at the hands of his father and that left a great impact on him. The grandfather was gradually transferred from a well-provided and comfortable main bedroom to a smaller and less convenient accommodation until it was finally decided to remove the grandfather to the servant’s quarters. During an exceptionally severe winter, the grandfather complained of his room being too chilly and his quilt being too thin to make him feel warm and comfortable. The father started looking for an extra blanket from a stock of old, useless rags and finally found him an old and mended blanket.

This left a great impact on child’s memory and he also started storing old things in a bag. One day his father saw him and asked the reason why he is storing these old cloths and mended blankets etc in a bag?

The child replied that a few days ago you gave similar old and mended blanket to your old and retired father when he was in need. So, I thought that I should also store some old items so can also provide you from these old cloths etc when you will be in need at your old and retired age.

This innocent expression of a child shows clearly that parents set examples for their children. So, for a great generation, parents must set positive and the best possible examples.

Read original post here: Parents should lead by examples │Laiq Ahmed Atif

Canada: Community worker, volunteer passes away

2012-01-24T04:00:00.001-08:00

He was the recipient of the gold medal from the Human Rights and Race Relations Centre of Toronto, the 25th Anniversary Award from the Urban Alliance on Race Relations in Toronto and the Federal Citation for Citizenship.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Mississauga | News
By John Stewart | Jan 23, 2012

Ijaz Qamar, a federal citizenship judge who wrote occasional guest columns for The Mississauga News in the past, has died.

A Mississauga resident since 1996, Qamar died at his City Centre home Saturday of a heart attack. He was 74.

“(Qamar) was a great community worker and a volunteer at the Trillium hospital. He was a good, sincere friend who never talked ill about anybody. He would never doubt anyone’s character,” said Mian M. Siddiq, who knew Qamar for more than 40 years and was a good friend.

Born in the Punjab, India, Qamar’s father died when he was quite young and he was left to be raised by his mother, who had little education.

She was thrilled when her son went abroad to the United States to get his education. Qamar got his PhD in agricultural economics before coming to Canada in 1967.

He worked for the provincial government in Manitoba for many years and helped to establish the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque in Winnipeg, of which he became president.

He remained active in a number of religious and community groups after moving to Ontario. He was a founding member of the Toronto Star’s community editorial board.

Qamar also served on the editorial board of the Ahmadiyya Gazette Canada and was an adjudicator with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board from 2007 to 2009.

He was the recipient of the gold medal from the Human Rights and Race Relations Centre of Toronto, the 25th Anniversary Award from the Urban Alliance on Race Relations in Toronto and the Federal Citation for Citizenship.

“I feel very honoured. I’m always eager to serve my community in any way possible,” he told The News on the occasion of his appointment to the citizenship board.

Qamar is predeceased by his wife Bushra. The couple had two sons, Tahir and Amir, both of whom now live in the U.S..

A funeral service will be held at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque, 1194 Matheson Blvd E., where he was an active member.

jstewart@mississauga.net

Read original post here: Community worker, volunteer dead at 74

Pakistan appeased militant groups, ignored army abuses in 2011: HRW

2012-01-24T01:00:00.000-08:00

Freedom of belief and expression came under severe threat after the murders of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and the federal minorities’ minister Shahbaz Bhatti over their public support for amending the country’s often abused blasphemy law.

Photo: Express Tribune

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Web Desk | January 23, 2012

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s fledgling democratic government, under increasing pressure from the military, appeased extremist groups, ignored army abuses and failed to hold those responsible for serious abuses accountable in 2011, New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch has said.

In its 676-page World Report 2012, the HRW said that targeted killings and other attacks on civilians by the Taliban and sectarian and ethnic militant groups, as well as killings of journalists, were commonplace during the year.

Security deteriorated dramatically throughout the country as a result of suicide bombings by the Taliban and affiliated groups. There was a dramatic increase in target killings in Balochistan, while 800 people were killed in often politically motivated violence in Karachi. Law enforcement authorities made little attempt to resolve enforced disappearances of terrorism suspects and opponents of the military.

“The past year was disastrous for human rights in Pakistan,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. “Bombs killed hundreds of civilians, advocates of religious tolerance were assassinated, and the military undermined democratic institutions. From Karachi to Quetta, Pakistan is teetering on the edge of becoming a military-run Potemkin democracy.”

In Pakistan, persecution and discrimination under cover of law against religious minorities and other vulnerable groups reached a zenith in 2011, HRW said. Freedom of belief and expression came under severe threat after the murders of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and the federal minorities’ minister Shahbaz Bhatti over their public support for amending the country’s often abused blasphemy law. The government notably failed to provide protection to people threatened by extremists or hold the extremists accountable. Taseer’s self-confessed killer, Mumtaz Qadri, was convicted of murder, but the presiding judge had to flee the country amid fears for his safety.

Journalists, particularly those covering counterterrorism issues or who are perceived to be taking public positions against the military, faced unprecedented threats. At least ten journalists were killed in Pakistan during the year, including Saleem Shahzad. A judicial commission was formed to probe the murder but it failed to identify perpetrators in its findings released in January 2012.

“Unless Shahzad’s murderers are identified and held accountable, media freedoms will decline even further in Pakistan as journalists operate in fear for their lives,” Adams said. “The government needs to bring charges wherever the trail leads.”

The group also criticised the US for carrying out about 75 aerial drone strikes during 2011 on suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. These strikes resulted in claims of large numbers of civilian casualties, but lack of access to conflict areas has prevented independent verification.

Read original post here: Pakistan appeased militant groups, ignored army abuses in 2011: HRW

UK: Ahmadi Muslims Organize Exhibition to Show Beauty of the Holy Qur'an

2012-01-23T22:00:00.001-08:00

...[T]he interested public can attend the event for as long or as short a period they choose, "so that they can see for themselves what the Holy Qur'an is about."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Kirklees Council
By Ahmadiyya Times | January 23, 2012

An exhibition about the beauty of the Holy Qur'an - the Holy Book of the Muslims

As part of the promotion of respect and tolerance and in accordance with their Motto of Love For All Hatred For None, The Spen Valley branch of The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association (AMA) is organising a Holy Qur'an exhibition in Dewsbury Town Hall.

The event, which is informal and open to the public, will take place on Saturday 28 January between 12pm and 4pm.

According to the information posted on the Kirklees Council website, the interested public can attend the event for as long or as short a period they choose, "so that they can see for themselves what the Holy Qur'an is about."

AMA promotes that Islam teaches and requires its followers to help others, as most, if not all, other religions do.

"We invite people to come to the event and see for themselves what really is in The Holy Qur'an," say the event organizers.

What: An exhibition about the beauty of the Holy Qur'an - the Holy Book of the Muslims
When: Saturday 28th January 2012, 12:00PM - 4:00PM
Where: Dewsbury Town Hall
Who: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, The Spen Valley branch

For more information, contact:
Mr Arif Ahmad
Mobile: 07733461942
Email: arifahmad01@aol.com

-- events@kirklees.gov.uk

Read original post here: UK: Holy Qur'an Exhibition

A Hostage in Pakistan

2012-01-23T19:00:00.003-08:00

...[I]t says something dark about Pakistan that an episode as preposterous as Memogate can all but paralyze the politics of a country already reeling from a faltering economy, sectarian violence and a parlous international situation.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Wall Street Journal
By Mira Sethi | January 21, 2012

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's former ambassador to the U.S., is living under house arrest. The reason? He offended the country's military.

'There are forces in Pakistan that want us to live in fear—fear of external and internal enemies." So warns Husain Haqqani, until November Pakistan's ambassador to Washington and now a de facto prisoner of the Pakistani generals whose ire he has provoked. "But just as the KGB and the Stasi did not succeed in suppressing the spirit of the Soviet and East German people, these forces won't succeed in Pakistan in the long run, either."

I am speaking to Mr. Haqqani in a spacious room in the official residence of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, where the 55-year-old former ambassador—wearing a cotton tunic, loose trousers and white rubber slippers—has been living for weeks, mainly for fear that he might be assassinated outside. The living arrangements may seem odd for those unfamiliar with Pakistan's fractured politics. But his fear is not ill-founded.

Mr. Haqqani's fall from political grace began on Oct. 10, 2011, when an American businessman of Pakistani descent, Mansoor Ijaz, took to the op-ed pages of the Financial Times to broadcast an explosive claim. In the aftermath of the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, Mr. Ijaz alleged, he was approached by a "senior Pakistani diplomat" to pass on a memo to Adm. Mike Mullen, then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The memo sought U.S. help in fending off a possible military coup in Pakistan and effecting a civilian takeover of the country's security program.

Some weeks after publishing his op-ed—and, it turns out, after secretly meeting with the chief of Pakistan's premier spy agency, Inter-services Intelligence (ISI)—Mr. Ijaz claimed that Mr. Haqqani was the diplomat who had asked him to draft the memo. He said he had corresponded with Mr. Haqqani via Blackberry messages, phone conversations and emails to formulate the memo.

Mr. Haqqani denied the allegation and returned to Pakistan to clear his name after "Memogate"—as the issue was breathlessly dubbed in Pakistan's media—threatened to rupture civil-military relations. When he landed at Islamabad airport on Nov. 20, the military seized his passport.

"I did not craft or write the memo that is currently the cause of controversy," Mr. Haqqani tells me flatly. Nonetheless, he offered his resignation as ambassador to facilitate the inquiry. Shortly afterward, Pakistan's supreme court took up the matter and banned Mr. Haqqani from leaving the country.

Back in the U.S., Adm. Mullen claims to have only a hazy recollection of having received, but not taken seriously, an unsigned memo that did not bear the imprimatur of the Pakistani government. The upshot, as Mr. Haqqani points out, is a Pakistani scandal that "involves a memo written by an American and delivered through an American [retired Gen. Jim Jones], to an American military official who consigned it to the dustbin."

It also bears noting that the central "conspiracy" in Memogate supposedly involves an attempt by civilian agents of Pakistan's government to protect that government from yet another illegal military coup. That didn't stop Pakistan's supreme court from taking up charges of "treason" against Mr. Haqqani that could carry the death penalty. Nor has it prevented elements in Pakistan's media from seeking to convict Mr. Haqqani as a traitor and "American agent."

Such incitements are not idle in the context of Pakistan's violent street politics. Last year saw the assassination in broad daylight of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's largest province, whom media had vilified for criticizing the country's notorious blasphemy laws and championing the cause of a Christian woman sentenced under them. Taseer's assassin—one of his own bodyguards—instantly became a hero in many quarters. Four months later, investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad was abducted, tortured and killed after he exposed al Qaeda's infiltration of the Pakistani Navy. ISI involvement in Shahzad's killing is widely suspected though it was officially denied by a recent commission of inquiry led by a supreme court judge.

These precedents weigh on Mr. Haqqani, but he seems determined to press on. "I lived in the United States and taught in the United States," he says, referring to his time as professor of international relations at Boston University and his stint as ambassador. "But I never sought American citizenship because I wanted to be able to contribute to the process of reform and the idea of civilian supremacy in Pakistan."

This points to the issue at the heart of Mr. Haqqani's—and Pakistan's—predicament: The failure of "the idea of civilian supremacy" to gain both a practical and uncontested grip. Instead, Pakistani politics lives in a kind of halfway-house neatly captured by Mr. Haqqani's halfway-house status as both guest and prisoner—a guest of the country's democratically elected leadership, a prisoner of the military and associated antidemocratic forces that want to make an example of the urbane diplomat.

If anyone is equipped to analyze these dilemmas, it is Mr. Haqqani. His 2005 book, "Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military" drew attention to the Islamist proxies of Pakistan's military that have killed thousands of Pakistanis and destabilized Afghanistan for two decades. "One of the reasons some people in the establishment hate me so much is because of my book. In fact, when I was made ambassador, somebody said to me that until you recant your book, you will never be forgiven by the Pakistani establishment."

He explains that "Pakistan has a long history of military intervention in politics. There were years when the military did not directly intervene but used proxies. Throughout the 1990s, we had four changes of government and forced early elections each time. For example, among the first allegations against Benazir Bhutto"—the former prime minister assassinated by al Qaeda affiliates in 2007—"was that she was somehow going to compromise the country's nuclear program. So, there are elements entrenched in the apparatus of state who are very reluctant to fully trust the elected leaders of the country."

I press him on the invisible pressures on President Asif Ali Zardari's unpopular government. "Soon after I resigned President Zardari fell ill," he notes. "The psychological-warfare machine tried to give it the color of President Zardari fleeing the country. He went [to Dubai] to get treated and then came back." Speaking perhaps as much to reassure himself as to lend some support to Mr. Zardari—who, if he stays in office through the end of his term in 2013, will be the first Pakistani president to do so—Mr. Haqqani adds that "In all psychological warfare, if the targets keep their nerves, then nothing happens."

Indeed Mr. Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani—Mr. Haqqani's other main protector—are both continually fighting for their political survival. For Mr. Gilani, charges of contempt of court could cost him his prime ministership. For Mr. Zardari, longstanding corruption charges still dog him, and his rivals on the Supreme Court could soon strip him of his presidential immunity. If either man is convicted, the government will fall, possibly dooming Mr. Haqqani and his cause.

As ambassador in Washington, Mr. Haqqani was often referred to as "silver-tongued," a man able to communicate effectively with officials of different political persuasions. Cultivating a relationship with a senator based on shared appreciation of a book on, say, tribal warfare, was the kind of thing that came easily to him.

He says he represented Pakistan diligently at a time when U.S.-Pakistani relations were deeply strained. "There is a longstanding culture of grievance in Pakistan," he says. "A lot of Pakistanis feel the U.S. has not always been responsive to Pakistan's geostrategic concerns. The Pakistani national narrative also says that Pakistan has been deserted by the United States many times. And the U.S. has not done enough to try and change that national narrative."

As for the current U.S. administration, he says that it "does not have the human resources right now to fully understand the complexities of Pakistan and engage with them. They don't have the people who understand."

The traditional pattern of U.S.-Pakistan relations has been that American intelligence wants working relations with Pakistani intelligence, and the State Department wants working relations with Pakistan's foreign office. "The U.S. will have to find a balance between their immediate needs and the long-term usefulness of their actions," says Mr. Haqqani. "They always say the civilian government is 'too weak' for them to engage with. But how will the civilian government become strong if, on all major issues, U.S. officials keep running to Pakistan's military leaders for advice and consultation?"

Still, Mr. Haqqani is not about to blame the U.S. for Pakistan's failures to develop into a normal state. The progressive dreams of the country's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, have been "shattered by religious extremism and repeated military interventions in politics." Enunciating his words carefully, he adds: "While I respect the Pakistani armed forces, I certainly do not support the idea of a militarized Pakistan."

Things may yet work out in Mr. Haqqani's favor. The military and its allies may detest him and want to wound his friends in government, but they do not seem prepared to bring the government down, much less formally take the reins of state. Pakistan is still dependent in many ways on the U.S., which is its biggest trading partner and supplier of military resources. Two weeks ago, U.S. Sens. John McCain, Joseph Lieberman and Mark Kirk issued a statement saying they were "increasingly troubled" by the treatment of Mr. Haqqani and were "closely following" his case.

Yet it says something dark about Pakistan that an episode as preposterous as Memogate can all but paralyze the politics of a country already reeling from a faltering economy, sectarian violence and a parlous international situation. The military establishment is still pursuing an arms race with India and helping the Taliban in Afghanistan—and it has been remarkably successful in casting its domestic opponents as agents of the CIA or Indian intelligence. Thus Mr. Haqqani's concern: "Sometimes I wonder if Salmaan Taseer's fate awaits all those of us who stand up for a different vision for Pakistan."

Ms. Sethi is an assistant books editor at the Journal.

Read original post here: A Hostage in Pakistan

Moderate voices in Pakistan are silenced: Report

2012-01-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

"We're definitely seeing a deliberate attempt to silence people. Scores of Pakistani journalists have asked for asylum, wanting us to arrange fellowships. Frankly, we're overwhelmed by it."

Journalist Atif was praying when men fired at him thrice, one of bullets
pierced his body and injured Imam also.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Zee News | India
By PTI | January 22, 2012

London: Moderate voices in Pakistan are being silenced by the country's military intelligence arm, the ISI, and militant groups, a media report said on Sunday.

The murder of Mukarram Khan Atif, radio journalist, who worked for Voice of America, by the Pakistan Taliban last Tuesday was shocking in its brutality and brazenness, The Sunday Times said.

Atif was praying in his mosque near Peshawar just after sunset last Tuesday when two gunmen walked in, dragged him outside and shot him dead.

It was the latest killing in what many describe as a deliberate campaign by the ISI and militant groups to silence moderate voices amid a growing crisis between government and the country's powerful military.

MK, as Atif was known, who was shortly to re-marry, had been receiving death threats from militants who did not like his reporting and demanded space on his radio programmes, according to his colleague Babar Baig, but was "very bold and active".

"We're definitely seeing a deliberate attempt to silence people," Bob Dietz, Asia director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said.

"Scores of Pakistani journalists have asked for asylum, wanting us to arrange fellowships. Frankly, we're overwhelmed by it."

According to the report, not only has Pakistan been the deadliest country for journalists for the past two years but the last year has seen the killing of Salman Taseer, the Punjab governor and Shahbaz Bhatti, a government minister.

Taseer's son Shahzad has been missing since he was abducted last August.

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's former ambassador to US, is in hiding in the prime minister's house, facing trial for treason on charges widely regarded as trumped up, the report said. He says his life is in danger.

His wife, Farahnaz Ispahani, President Asif Zardar's spokesman, has fled to Washington amid fears that ISI might kidnap her to force her husband to sign a confession and implicate the president.

"What we're seeing is the systematic killing or silencing of anyone who stands up to the institutionalisation of a militarised Islamist state, who advocates positive relations with the West or stands up for tolerance," she said.

"I'm scared. The government can't even protect itself." It is not just journalists who are at risk.

Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch, had to move his family to Britain last year after threats to them.

Using children is another tactic fo intimidation. One journalist who reported on Kashmiri militants had his teenage son abducted as he left school more than a year ago. He says ISI is holding him, and his wife has been allowed a 10-minute visit. They are scared to go public in case the boy is killed.

Among those who have publicly raised the issue are Najam Sethi, editor of The Friday Times and host of a popular political television show and his wife and co-editor, Jugnu Mohsin.

After years of threats, the intimidation became so severe last year that they were forced to move to Washington for a couple of months.

"In the old days you'd get picked up, thrown into prison for a couple of months, may be roughed up, then let out. But now it's a whole different ball game - there's no second chance," Sethi told the newspaper.

The couple returned home to Lahore a month ago after his employers built a studio in their house so they would not need to go out, and the local government gave them eight round-the-clock police guards.

After a wave of accusations on social media sites that he and his daughter were CIA spies, Sethi decided to go public, describing the threats as "from both state and non-state actors, including extremists."

He said he had given specific information to media watchdogs at home and abroad "so if we were harmed they would know who had done it".

According to the report, a few weeks after Bin Laden's death, a reporter called Saleem Shahzad, who was investigating links between the military and al Qaeda, was abducted by ISI. A few days later, the 40-year-old father of three was found in a ditch, beaten to death.

An international outcry prompted a rare commission of inquiry, which released its report last week.

It apportioned no blame but stated: "The commission is convinced that there are sufficient reasons to believe that the agencies, including ISI, have been using coercive and intimidating tactics in dealing with journalists who antagonise the agency's interest. "

PTI

Read original post here: Moderate voices in Pakistan are silenced: Report

New Zealand: Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at

2012-01-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

The community has a wide ethnic mix of immigrant populations mainly from Fiji, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana and a growing number of second and third generation Kiwis as well as local Maori and Europeans.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Human Rights Commission
By HRC | January 20, 2012

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at is an incorporated society and registered charitable trust dedicated to providing assistance to the moral, spiritual and academic development of New Zealanders.

The National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in New Zealand is Mohammed Iqbal JP.

The community has over 300 members, with a wide ethnic mix of immigrant populations mainly from Fiji, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana and a growing number of second and third generation Kiwis as well as local Maori and Europeans.

Projects 2012

Annual Convention

This year the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at New Zealand will hold its 23rd Annual Convention also known as Jalsa Salana. The event will extend over two days but a special session is held for the wider community so that they can also learn about the finer points of Islam and Ahmadiyyat. The first event of this type was held in 1891 by the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at. Since then the annual convention is held world-wide.

Date : Saturday, 28 January
Time : 11am ([prorgamme commences 11.30am, lunch served at 1.15pm).
Venue : 20 Dalgety Drive, Manukau Central 2104, Manukau.

Silver Jubilee Celebration ( 1987-2012)

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is celebrating its Silver Jubilee this year starting from 20 May.

A long list of events is planned during this year in conjunction with this landmark in our history. Many of these are internal activities but events where external guests will be invited for the celebrations include:

Silver Jubilee Celebrations on 24November, 2012.
Peace Conference on 29September, 2012.
Inauguration of the first new Mosque being built at 20 Dalgety Drive in Manukau City on Friday, 23 November, 2012.
Launching Ceremony of the translation of the full Holy Quran in Te Reo on 27 November, 2012.

More information will be available closer to the event.

Contact: Eqbal Khan eqbalakhan@gmail.com

Read original post here: Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at

UK: Asia Bibi and the Islamofascists in Europe - By Shokat Saleem

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

There’s a horrible irony in the fact that Pakistani lawyers are risking their lives to defend Bibi while British, or at least UK based, zealots are (apparently) doing their best to get her killed.

Photo: Mosque Directory - UK

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Pak Tribune | Forums
By Shokat Saleem | January 22, 2012

As most readers will know, Asia Bibi, a Christian, is facing the death sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan. The governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was assassinated because he expressed support for her. It now seems as though the prosecution of Bibi is being urged on (and funded) by UK based individuals:

Qari, according to some of his close friends, was now thinking of not pursuing the case anymore and expressed his desire to some of his friends, only to find himself in a difficult situation when activists of a religious organisation ‘convinced’ him not to change his mind.

“We will chase her through hell … don’t worry about the money, hiring best lawyers,” Salam told The Express Tribune, quoting the son of Khatm-e-Nabuwat’s London chapter’s leader.

The leader’s son flew in to Nankana from London after hearing that Salam might not go to Lahore High Court (LHC) when the review petition against Aasia’s conviction is taken up.

There’s a horrible irony in the fact that Pakistani lawyers are risking their lives to defend Bibi while British, or at least UK based, zealots are (apparently) doing their best to get her killed.

The Muslim Council of Britain logo on the Khatme Nubuwwat London branch website linked to above says – “MCB Condemns Violence or Hatred Towards Any Group”

Here is their spiel:

Khatme Nubuwwat means that Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H) is the Last of the Prophets. The process and routine of appointing Prophets and Messengers by Almighty Allah has been terminated, finished, ended, stopped, and sealed. None will be appointed as prophet after Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H). His prophethood will continue until the judgement day and the day after, only that person can claim to be a Muslim who believes in Khatme Nubuwwat and confesses.

Directly underneath that, (and underneath the MCB’s logo professing being against hatred or demonisation), is a screed of hate mongering towards the Ahmaddiya.

What is Qadiyanism (or so-called Ahmadiya)?

Qadiyanism is a movement started in a town called Qadiyan in India by a man called Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839 – 1908). Initially, he declared himself as a Muslim writer; then he announced himself as a revivalist (Mujaddid); in 1891, he claimed to be the Promised Mehdi and the Promised Messiah; and in 1901, he proclaimed himself a prophet of God! In 1914 a split took place in the Qadiyani group with the accession of Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad, the 2nd successor; over definitions of doctrines forming the mainstream of Qadiani group. They are respectively known as Qadiani and Lahori sects. Both Qadianis group fraudulently claim to be one of the Muslim sects but infact they are unrighteous cult, kafir and non-muslim. Mirza Ghulam Qadiyani died on 26th May 1908 in Lahore (Pakistan) through illness being a victim of cholera. Mirza Ghulam was buried in a village of Qadiyan.

The Resolution of the Rabitah Al-Alam Al-Islami (Makkah) and Pakistan’s constitutional amendment of 1974 declared the Qadianism (Qadianis and Lahoris) as non-Muslims.

Purpose of this website

Our organisation, through this web site, attempts to create awareness about the Qadiani (Ahmadiyya). We also endeavour to provide answers to the numerous requests we receive from the worldwide Muslim community for information on this group.

“Ahmadis are traitors both to Islam and to India” (Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s letter to Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru), Lahore, June 21, 1936

There is a significant entry on Wikipedia about this group:

Khatm-e-Nubuwwat Academy (English:Finality of Prophethood Academy) claims to be simply an Ahmadiyya-awareness organisation located in Forest Gate, London, United Kingdom. It has been the subject of the 2010 controversy in the United Kingdom regarding an alleged hate campaign against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Akber Choudhry, a political analyst and the founding member of the Muslim Identity Group, is the spokesperson for the Khatm-e-Nubuwwat Academy.

A number of Members of Parliaments commented on the alleged hate campaign and the Academy in a Parliamentary debate on October 20, 2010.[1]

…..

The Independent mentioned the Khatme Nubuwwat Academy for allegedly being behind a hatred campaign against the Ahmadis. The website belonging to the Academy describes Ahmadis as nothing but a gang of traitors, apostates and infidels. With reference to this, Akber Choudhry, a spokesman for the Academy stated, The words ‘apostates’ and ‘infidels’ are understood differently in English than in their Islamic theological sense, especially within the Urdu-speaking Muslims, and can be replaced by terms more sensitive to the current climate in which the connotations of these words have changed quite rapidly in the past few years .[4] With reference to the anti-Ahmadiyya laws in Pakistan, Imam Suhail Bawa, a leading Khatm e Nubuwwat preacher stated that then the 1953 Lahore agitation against the Qadianis will be repeated in the streets once more. The streets and roads of Lahore were filled with blood in that agitation. The term Wajib-ul Qatal (liable to be killed) has not been used although it is commonly used by similar Khatme Nubuwwat organizations and preachers in Pakistan.[4]

However, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, no crimes were committed and no laws was broken in the United Kingdom. The CPS has been crticized for not prosecuting alleged hate crimes. Human rights activist Eric Avebury called for an investigation into why the CPS had only brought one case against incitement to religious hatred since the law came into being in 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatm-e-Nubuwwat_Academy

WHAT A SHAME!

Read original post here: Asia Bibi and the Islamofascists in Europe - By : shokat.saleem

Sri Lanka: 161 Islamic preachers from Tablighi Jama'at deported

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Perera said he acted on several complaints by the Muslim community, that the deported were not preaching the moderate Islam practiced on the Buddhist-dominated island.

The Tabligh Jamat is an evangelical Islamic movement founded in India
[Photo: Al Jazeera / Aswami Yusof]

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Al Jazeera | News
By Al Jazeera | January 23, 2012

Immigration official say the deported violated visa regulations by preaching to pockets of Muslims around the country.

Sri Lanka has ordered a group of 161 foreign Islamic preachers to leave the country, for flouting visa regulations by preaching to pockets of Muslims around the country, an official said.

Controller of Immigration and Emigration Chulananda Perera said on Sunday the preachers, who were mostly Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Maldivian and Arab, had travelled into the country on tourist visas.

"We have ordered them to leave the country by January 31. They have violated immigration laws. A tourist visa is to have a holiday or visit friends and family and not to preach Islam," Perera told AFP.

He said the group, which belongs to the Tabligh Jamat group, arrived in Sri Lanka last month in small batches.

Perera said he acted on several complaints by the Muslim community, that the deported were not preaching the moderate Islam practiced on the Buddhist-dominated island.

"Foreign clerics wishing to preach Islam in Sri Lanka, must first apply for permission through the religious affairs authorities," Perera said.

In January, Sri Lanka launched an online-visa application system, scrapping the one-month visa on arrival for foreigners, except Maldivians and Singaporeans.

Read original post here: Sri Lanka deports 161 Islamic preachers

UK: Accused of extremism, Briton's Khatm-e-Nabuwat group influencing Aasia Bibi's fate

2012-01-23T04:00:00.001-08:00

Asia Bibi was sentenced to death for blasphemy in November 2010 after drinking water from a well reserved for Muslims and allegedly making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

Top: TKN chief, Abdul Rahman Bawa; bottom-right, Sohail Bawa;
bottom-middle, TKN office London; bottom-left, Aasia Bibi

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By ET Correspondent | January 21, 2012

Aasia Bibi’s case: Weighed down by guilt, blasphemy accuser mulls pulling back

ISLAMABAD: A guilty prayer leader prowls the narrow, fetid streets of Ittanwali village in Nankana district.
At the forefront of a popular, polarising case, Qari Salam ostensibly regrets filing a blasphemy charge against an impoverished Christian woman, Aasia Bibi.

The source of his guilt – realisation that the case was not based on facts but on hyped religious emotions and personal bias of some village women.

Aasia has been languishing in Sheikhupura jail since a sessions court awarded her death sentence for insulting Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Support from London

Qari, according to some of his close friends, was now thinking of not pursuing the case anymore and expressed his desire to some of his friends, only to find himself in a difficult situation when activists of a religious organisation ‘convinced’ him not to change his mind.

“We will chase her through hell … don’t worry about the money, hiring best lawyers,” Salam told The Express Tribune, quoting the son of Khatm-e-Nabuwat’s London chapter’s leader.

The leader’s son flew in to Nankana from London after hearing that Salam might not go to Lahore High Court (LHC) when the review petition against Aasia’s conviction is taken up.

Salam himself, however, denied he ever thought of backtracking from his stance.

“How can I change my mind,” he said. “I believe it will bring me a better place in heaven. It gives me pleasure, it is my pride,” Salam told The Express Tribune.

Salam said Khatm-e-Nabuwat had hired Mustafa Chaudhry as counsel to fight his case in the higher court, and were ready to go to an extent to seek death for Aasia.

Counsel seek bail

While bullets may have silenced Aasia’s lone supporter, former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, they have faltered in the face of the silent resolve of her counsel.

Despite death threats from religious right, Aasia’s lawyers are now planning to seek bail for her from LHC.
“Yes, we are ready to file a bail application and will be moving ahead with it in a couple of weeks,” said Rai Ajmal, one of the two lawyers who were Aasia’s counsel in Nankana court which sent her to gallows in 2010.

A review petition against the verdict filed by Rai, and a fellow lawyer Sardar Khan Chaudhry, is pending before the LHC and there are little chances that it can be taken up for at least another three years.

Rai said the LHC is still hearing review petitions filed in 2006-07, and judges are reluctant to use their discretionary powers to take up Aasia’s case on a priority basis due to its controversial nature.

Aasia’s review petition was filed in 2010 and, according to sources in the LHC, it will purportedly not be taken up before 2015, while Aasia languishes in jail.

Both Rai and Chaudhry appeared convinced that the top provincial court would rule in favour of a bail plea they were going to file if the decision was based on the evidence, and not religious sentiments on the streets.

Former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was assassinated last year by one of his security guards for raising his voice in favour of Aasia’s release and calling for a review of the country’s blasphemy laws.

The intensity of opposition by religious right forced the government to withdraw plans of reviewing the laws enacted by former dictator General Ziaul Haq.

The same religious fervour is expected to cast shadows on future verdicts in the case as well.

While he did not say anything explicitly, Rai said he did fear for his, and colleague’s life for pursuing a ‘very sensitive’ case that has evoked popular religious sentiments.

Aasia would have been acquitted by the Nankana court had the case been heard dispassionately, he said.

Threatening the lawyers

A neutral trial of the case seems to be a forgone conclusion though, in the face of opposition by religious outfits like Khatm-e-Nabuwat and Tehrik-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool.

Activists of both organisations, individuals closely associated with the case said, had been threatening not only the lawyers with dire consequences but also Salam for his purported backtracking on the case.

Convener of Hurmat-e-Rasool Maulana Ameer Hamza, also a top leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, denied that his organisation’s activists were threatening anybody to stop court proceedings in the case.

He refused to commit, however, that his outfit would accept if the LHC either acquit or grant bail to Aasia.

“What we say is that court proceedings must be respected … and after LHC there is the Supreme Court as well. We won’t let it go easily,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2012.

Read original post here: Aasia Bibi’s case: Weighed down by guilt, blasphemy accuser mulls pulling back

USA: Ahmadi Muslims seek to educate Lawmakers about Shariah

2012-01-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

“True Islamic teachings, as practiced by the Prophet of Islam, promote a secular government with equal rights and privileges for all citizens and a separation of mosque and state.” [Dr. Nasim Rehmatullah]

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Via Press release | January 23, 2012

Oldest American-Muslim organization calls for end to fear mongering

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA calls for an end to the growing fear of Islamic Shariah in the United States. Shariah is not a threat to our nation. Instead, Shariah is a set of Islamic regulations and guidelines that govern the personal and private beliefs and actions of a Muslim, similar to the Halacha for Jews and Cannon for Christians. The supposed Shariah practiced in some Muslim-majority countries does not reflect the true Islamic concept of Shariah.

As the leading Islamic organization to endorse a separation of mosque and state, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA clarifies that Shariah, like American law, enshrines freedoms of thought, expression and belief and cannot be imposed on Americans in the United States.

“True Islamic teachings, as practiced by the Prophet of Islam, promote a secular government with equal rights and privileges for all citizens and a separation of mosque and state,” said Dr. Nasim Rehmatullah, Vice President of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, USA. “Because the laws of the United States are supreme over any and all religious laws, the contention that Shariah may be imposed in our country is utterly absurd.”

The dozens of proposed bills to ban Shariah in the United States are an exaggerated response to a non-existent and manufactured problem. As our Nation’s oldest American-Muslim organization, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA invites lawmakers at all levels of government to meet Community leaders to better understand Shariah’s role in the life of American Muslims.

For more information contact Harris Zafar, National Spokesperson, harris.zafar@ahmadiyya.us.

Read original post here: Ahmadi Muslims Seek to Educate Lawmakers about Shariah

Religious harmony: Aiming for Jinnah’s Pakistan

2012-01-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

“I criticise the generation before me for not having enough role models for my generation to look up to. It becomes our responsibility to inspire the youth.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Mavra Bari | January 22, 2012

ISLAMABAD: This is not the Pakistan that Jinnah envisioned. He envisioned Pakistan to be a nation where there would be no discrimination based on religion and other variations. However today there are differences abound, with minorities being heavily discriminated against.

This was said by Brigadier (retd) Samson Simon Sharif at a conference organised by the Young Christian Leaders Network on the current political situation in Pakistan. The conference was held at St Thomas Church in G-7 and around 50 people attended.

“We should not stop our pursuit of Jinnah’s Pakistan and work hard to bring it to fruition,” he said criticizing some Christian political parties, whom he referred to as “zombies” who gained political office to further their own needs. He cited the example of a church in Lahore that was bulldozed without prior notice, with the approval of aforementioned officials.

Sharif went further when he expressed the need for dutiful Christian leaders and posited that in areas where Christians are in majority, they should stand for MNA and MPA positions.

Later, Sunil Sheroon screened a video on the church losing its present generation to the information age where children emulate celebrities like Eminem, Lady Gaga etcetera. The video aimed to promote the “4-14 window movement”, where children below the age of 15 are taught to be Christian leaders and inspire change for the community and country.

“I criticise the generation before me for not having enough role models for my generation to look up to. It becomes our responsibility to inspire the youth,” Sheroon said.

The movement aims to form a space for such young leaders by making changes at the policy and individual level. Five regional conferences will be conducted with the concluding conference being a national one.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2012.

Read original post here: Religious harmony: Aiming for Jinnah’s Pakistan

Pakistan: Catholics go to court against the "blasphemous" demolition of their institute

2012-01-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

The Archbishop hopes that international pressure "will have a positive impact and that the land mafia will fail in their criminal intent."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Asia News
By Jibran Khan | January 21, 2012

A woman has filed a complaint against the authorities, for demolition of "Gosha-e-Aman". Among the crimes, the violation of the blasphemy law, for the destruction of copies of the Bible and a church. Archbishop Emeritus: The provincial government is "running out of funds" and is looking for "easy targets to fill the budget deficit."

Lahore (AsiaNews) - The Catholic community of Lahore is up in arms against the illegal demolition of the "Gosha-e-Aman", a "place of peace" that welcomed Christians and Muslims, last January 10 by the provincial government of Punjab. One victim has decided to take the case to court by filing a written complaint against the Development Authority and other officials involved in the affair. Meanwhile, it appears that one of the police officers present during the demolition of the building (Malik Ahmed Raza Tahir), was in charge of security in Gojra in August 2009, when a Muslim mob attacked the local Christian minority, resulting in seven dead - burned alive – and the burning of several homes and properties.

Speaking to AsiaNews, the archbishop emeritus Mgr. Lawrence Saldanha condemned the demolition decided by the authorities, the prelate emphasizes that we are in the presence of "ancient institution, worthy of respect," owned "by the Church in peace for 125 years" and used "for charitable purposes."

The faithful have dubbed this past January 10 "Black Tuesday" and demand the restitution of property and compensation for damage, if not, they warn, protests will continue until the authorities meet their demands. The institute "Gosha-e-Aman", founded in 1887, is surrounded by two acres of land, worth a total of billions of rupees. Inside there was a home for the elderly, a girls' school, a convent and a chapel for prayer. The dispute relating to the possession of the building and surrounding area had long been the center of a lawsuit, it seems the demolition was triggered by a woman - converted to Islam - who in the past sought shelter in the center.

Catholic Christian leaders and government officials have expressed solidarity with the victims, in search of a makeshift shelter that can accommodate them in the coming weeks. In Lahore Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants and non-governmental organizations have strongly condemned the abuse by the local government. Zenobia Richards, 61, one of the victims of the demolition, has launched a lawsuit by filing a petition to the High Court, citing the authority for urban development, along with other officials. She worked 24 years for Caritas Pakistan and lived in "Gosha-e-Aman". "It was a center of peace - she says - a lot of memories bind me to that place. That's why I wanted to bring a case against those who demolished the building, which I call home. "

During demolition operations, the workers also destroyed a statue of the Our Lady and several copies of the Bible: "I used to pray in this place," adds Zenobia (pictured, on the rubble of the building) and that's why "I intend to cite the crime of blasphemy "because they" desecrated a church and religious material in my house". "This is not just a piece of land - she adds - but the emotions, feelings, rights of minorities in Pakistan." She says she is "not afraid" and points the finger at the Punjab Minister for Minorities: “I will fight for my rights, "she concludes, confirming today that she has filed an appeal in court.

Archbishop Saldanha, archbishop emeritus of Lahore, speaks of "clear violation of the rights of minorities." The prelate told AsiaNews that the government "is short of funds" and is looking for "easy targets to fill the budget deficit." He adds that Catholics can and should continue in the protest and "appeals to the international community: I myself have spoken to the Department for religious freedom in Canada." The Archbishop hopes that international pressure "will have a positive impact and that the land mafia will fail in their criminal intent."

Read original post here: Catholics go to court against the "blasphemous" demolition of their institute

Australia: Muslims show Aussie pride

2012-01-22T14:00:00.001-08:00

For the past three years, the association has been based at the former Leisureland theme park in Langwarrin, where members congregate for community events.

Basma Qadeer from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association in Langwarrin
who are celebrating Australia day with a BBQ and are hoping members
of the community will come along.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | AU Desk
Source/Credit: Frankston Standard - Leader
By Donna Carton | January 23, 2010 (local time)

WE are Muslim and we are Australian.

That’s the message the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Victoria wants to send to its neighbours as it prepares a community celebration for Australia Day.

It is the first time the association is inviting members of the larger community to its centre to join in the festivities.

Member Naureen Choudhary said being loyal to their homeland is part of their faith.

“Australia is our adopted homeland and it is important to share our sentiments towards Australia with our neighbours,” she said.

“We are hoping they will come to our celebration.

“We hope they will see that we are happy to be Australian.

“It is good for our children, too.

“They know they are Muslim and we encourage them to know they are Australian as well.”

For the past three years, the association has been based at the former Leisureland theme park in Langwarrin, where members congregate for community events.

The Australia Day celebration, which will be held on January 29, will be mainly presented by the young Ahmadi Muslims.

They will read a few poems and writings about what it means to be Muslim and Australian and there will be small exhibition about the Koran.

A barbecue and vegetarian lunch will also be provided for all guests.

Frankston Mayor Brian Cunial, some councillors and members of the Interfaith networks of Frankston, Casey and Dandenong will attend the event.

“We hope people will come.

“It is an opportunity for people from Frankston and elsewhere to learn about Muslims by talking to them and interacting with them one on one,” Ms Choudhary said.

The event runs from 11am-2pm at the centre in Leisureland Drive, Langwarrin.

Check out our map of local Australia Day events here.

Read original post here: WE are Muslim and we are Australian.

Pakistan: Preaching extremism, religious intolerance from US funds

2012-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

There are reports from dateline Multan in January 2012 that Sunni Ithad Council is joining hands with Pakistan Tehreek Insaf PTI of Imran Khan.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: PCP | Pakistan
By PCP | January 20, 2011

Islamabad: January 20, 2012. (PCP) “We always demanded to link US aid to Pakistan with repeal of all controversial Islamic laws contrary to Human Rights which are discriminating Christians, Hindus and other religious communities but same was ignored” said Dr. Nazir S Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC

Dr. Nazir S Bhatti was commenting here on news which surprised millions of Pakistani Christian that US Administration gave Sunni Ithad Council sum of $ 36,607, in year 2009, for anti-Talaban propaganda and against religious extremism in Pakistan.

The news of US grant to Sunni Ithad Council appeared on US website usaspending.gov and duly confirmed by US mission in Pakistan.

The Sunni Ithad Council leaders denied reports and urged US Administration to render an apology on allegations of US grant.

The Sunni Ithad Council activists took lead in Pakistan to pose killer of Shaheed Salman Taseer as a Hero during his appearances in courts to face trial.

It will be surprising to note that US funded Sunni Ithad leaders have claimed to buy gun which used Mumtaz Qadri to spray bullet on governor of Punjab Shaheed Salman Taseer for Hundred Million Pakistani Rupees and awarded a killer a rank of Saint called in Islamic terms “Hazrat”

Salman Taseer was assassinated by his bodyguard, an elite force policeman, Mumtaz Qardi in capital city Islamabad in 2011. Salman Taseer, as governor of Punjab, was seeking pardon from death sentence to a Christian mother of five, Asia Bibi, accused of blasphemy law.

There are reports from dateline Multan in January 2012 that Sunni Ithad Council is joining hands with Pakistan Tehreek Insaf PTI of Imran Khan.

It is on record that in Lahore rally of PTI in 2011, Islamic religious groups and Sunni Ithad activists participated with Trucks carrying hoardings with pictures of Mumtaz Qadri and depicting Holy Father Pope as dog with sign on it “Be ready to die; now it’s your turn”

Dr. Bhatti said “The US aid to Pakistan for civilian purpose is not given in a small portion to millions of Pakistani Christians and only Muslims are its beneficiary”

PCC Chief appealed US administration to allocate funds for Pakistani Christians in US aid to Pakistan and directly transfer it to Caritas Pakistan and Church World Service that Christian may enjoy due benefits in education and social uplift programs.

Nazir S Bhatti opposed US aid or grant to Islamic extremists groups like Sunni Tehreek in Pakistan but to deserving moderate Muslim organizations which are struggle for equal rights and rule of law to establish tolerant society and social justice.

Read original post here: Preaching Sufism or religious intolerance from US funds in Pakistan

Canada: Visitors clearing up misconceptions of Islam

2012-01-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

“So what we are trying to do is just trying to convey the message to people in North America and Canada that Quran contains the message of peace and that message of equal rights for everyone, including women and non-Muslims."

Harith Chaudhary and Ansar Raza, of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at,
during the open house at the Parry Sound Public Library Sunday afternoon.
Sarah Bissontte/Beacon Star

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Cottage Country New
By Sarah Bissonette | January 20, 2011

PARRY SOUND - Ansar Raza and Harith Chaudhary put up banners on the Muslim faith and waited for people to come and ask questions Saturday.

Raza, a religious minister with Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at and Chaudhary, local outreach co-ordinator with the organization's youth wing, were in at the Parry Sound Library to dispel myths around Islam.

"First of all, we are going to every town, city in Canada to propagate the message of Islam," said Raza.
"Particularly, this exhibition is focused on the Quran because last year what happened was one Christian priest tried to make a Quran burning day.

“So what we are trying to do is just trying to convey the message to people in North America and Canada that Quran contains the message of peace and that message of equal rights for everyone, including women and non-Muslims."

A Florida pastor had threatened to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11 in 2010. After international outcry the holy book wasn't burned. But, according to an American newspaper, the pastor did burn a copy of the Quran last spring.

The group also wants to dispel the belief that religion is the cause of wars and that Islam's Prophet Muhammad is a warrior. Instead, Raza pointed out, Islam means peace and believers simply convey their message to others and then let them decide.

"We believe in Jesus Christ as a true prophet of God," said Raza. "You can see that we revere his mother so much that Muslim women are encouraged to walk in her foot steps, she's the chosen one. And, she bore Jesus …(through) immaculate conception. We believe he is the prophet of God, not the son of God."

According to Raza, people were at the library for the presentation before the doors opened at noon for the four-hour open house, and five people had attended by the mid-way point.

"They asked about everything," said Raza. "They were so interested that for at least 35 to 40 minutes they spent reading every banner. They came five minutes before the start of the exhibition and when they left it was 12:35. And the rest of the time they kept on asking questions about five daily prayers and what we do if we are travelling, about fasting, about our system, about our scholars - whether they are holy people or just scholars - is there any middle man between you and God, all of these things. They were very serious."

The organization hopes to hold an interfaith conference in Parry Sound, possibly in the summer, once it's made contact with local churches.

Read original post here: Visitors clearing up misconceptions of Islam

UK: Mosque accused of promoting anti-Ahmadi hate in Tooting falls victim to hate by their own

2012-01-22T02:00:00.000-08:00

"The imam said he had converted to Islam seven years ago and lost contact, he had lost his mother and was going through a difficult time."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Wandsworth Guarduan | UK
By Alexandra Rucki | 21st January 2012

Man racially assaulted Muslim worshippers and attempted to set fire to mosque in Tooting

A man with mental health problems racially assaulted Muslim worshippers and attempted to set fire to a mosque, a magistrates court heard.

Damian Royston Smith, 30, of Lambourne Gardens, Essex, harassed worshippers at the Tooting Islamic Centre, in Upper Tooting Road, over five days.

Wimbledon Magistrates Court heard Smith converted to Islam seven years ago but lost contact with the Imam Suliman Gani.

On November 15 last year Iftikhar Hussain, a volunteer security worker at the mosque, said he saw Smith watching children going to evening classes.

Mr Hussain asked him to leave, but he began shouting racist abuse outside the prayer room and the mosque.

He went on to charge into the mosque doors with a whisky bottle.

The next day Smith barged Vase Siddiqi and shouted racist abuse at him outside the mosque, but Mr Siddiqi was told the imam was dealing with the situation.

Later on in the day he saw him lying down outside the mosque and decided to report the assault to the police.

Two days afterwards two policemen arrested Smith for trying to set fire to the mosque with a plastic bag filled with tomato tin cans and matches.

He said he had been sleeping rough for the past few days and wanted to be arrested so he had somewhere to sleep.

Prosecuting, Mrs Trudy Scott said: "It all happened in a short space of time because he was having issues with the mosque.

"The imam said he had converted to Islam seven years ago and lost contact, he had lost his mother and was going through a difficult time."

Judge Mrs Otomosho remanded Smith in custody for three weeks for a mental health report to be prepared.

He will next appear at Wimbledon Magistrates on February 8.

-- Headline by Ahmadiyya Times

Read original post here: Man racially assaulted Muslim worshippers and attempted to set fire to mosque in Tooting

Pakistan: Mass conversions | For Matli’s poor Hindus, ‘lakshmi’ lies in another religion

2012-01-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

“We did not want to publicise this. I just want these families to get Watan Cards or some money. We were told by the National Database and Registration Authority in Matli that it would be easier to get this done if these people were Muslims.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Saba Imtiaz / Sameer Mandhro | January 21, 2012

MATLI/TM KHAN: Money, jobs and a debt-free life: It sounds like a sweet deal for many of the Hindu labourers in Matli, but it comes with strings attached — convert to Islam.

Hundreds of Hindus in the area have converted to Islam in the past few years, courtesy seminaries, mosques and self-styled preachers.

Switching religions comes with an upgrade in social status and material benefits – Hindu converts said they could easily get Watan Cards and National Identification Cards, aid, and were given land and assistance by the organisation helpfully walking them over to the other side.

But these material benefits aren’t available for everyone. For the Hindus of the Bheel caste, who were converted by the Barelvi group Tanzeem Ulema-e-Islam, life is still restricted to the land that they are squatting on in Tando Mohammad Khan.

Abdul Hameed, who was once known as Pyaro, still works as a labourer and earns a pittance. He was converted by Maulana Taj Mohammad Kamboh via an introduction by Jan Mohammad, a small-time landowner who has been ‘preaching’ to Hindus for almost 15 years.

Jan Mohammad is insistent his proselytising isn’t tied to material benefits. “We did not want to publicise this. I just want these families to get Watan Cards or some money,” he says. “We were told by the National Database and Registration Authority in Matli that it would be easier to get this done if these people were Muslims.”

The same motivations are cited by Maulana Taj Muhammad Kamboh who has been playing a leading role in the conversions. “They had no place to live in,” he told The Express Tribune. “I am trying to get a plot for them and will construct houses for them with the help of my friends. I don’t want to see them as beggars.” He insists that now that they are Muslims they should live their lives according to their own will. “We will not impose anything on them,” he adds. “They are also free of any sect.”

The converts shrug. When their minders are out of earshot, they say their life hasn’t changed much. Pyaro, for example, points out that he was already following many Muslim practices and as far as being a Hindu was concerned, he had never been to a temple or studied any of the religious texts. “Our nikahs were conducted by a Muslim. We ate chickens slaughtered by a Muslim.” His relatives in Mirpurkhas and other districts in Sindh have also converted to Islam, and had encouraged him and his wife Nazira (formerly Koraan) to also convert.

Another convert, Abdul Rasheed (previously known as Haroon), pointed out another advantage. “Now there is no difference between our friends’ traditions and culture,” he says, admitting, however, that it will take time to learn the ropes. But here too, the underlying economics surfaces: “We need a permanent shelter now and without that it would be hard to concentrate on the new religion.”

In order to press them in this direction are men like Hafiz Asadullah Memon, who heads the Tanzeem Ulema-e-Islam in Matli. He wants them to start saying their namaz regularly and reading the Quran.

Seven children from the converted families are now being taught basic religious lessons at a mosque on the property. Seven-year-old Aziza, who is being schooled at the Deedar-e-Mustafa mosque, rattles off the Kalima. “Yes, we are Muslims now but my friends still call me by the same name, Appi,” she says. “I remind them again and again that my new name is Aziza.”

The young boys wander around the plot in their new green prayer caps. “These children study happily,” says their teacher Hafiz Mashooq Ali. “I don’t hit them or anything.”

With new Muslim names and a vow to adopt religious rites, they are only hoping that someone will be impressed enough to offer them land and social security.

These desires have been fulfilled at the Madrassa Baitul Islam, a Deobandi seminary in Matli which meticulously maintains a log of the conversions. The first entry is dated November 1, 2009. The most recent is December 22, 2011, when they converted the 428th Hindu to Islam.

The seminary – which has received kudos from religious-political parties including the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and is affiliated with the Darul Uloom in Karachi – also pays off the debts of Hindus converting to Islam. Based on the entries in its records, this can range from a few thousand rupees to over Rs50,000.

The Bheels who live in the lower parts of Sindh, including Tando Muhammad Khan, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Badin and Thatta, are considered to be peace loving and humble, and are rarely found involved in crime. “We don’t have money or land, so what would we fight with anyone over or who would make enemies of us? We have to do our own work,” explains Allah Bux Shaikh, a fresh convert in his mid-30s.

In a classroom, dozens of children rock back and forth as they recite the Holy Quran, and Ali Ahmed, a Hindu convert, is brought out as a model student. He has already memorised five Siparas of the Holy Quran and aims to become a hafiz. “His family will get a stipend of Rs200,” seminary teacher Qari Abdullah tells The Express Tribune. Students, including converts and Muslims in neighbouring areas, are provided lodging and expenses.

The register also notes the caste of the converts, as well as how much of their loan has been paid off. A newly converted family is given Rs5,000 as well as a copy of the Holy Quran, and housing for three to four months. During this time, they are given a religious education and taught how to live their life according to the Islamic code. There is an on-call doctor and a hospital on the premises and an ambulance is available to move serious patients. Another seminary in the city educates female converts.

“When we were Hindus, we were nothing,” say converts Khan Mohammad and Hawa Bibi. But as they begin to share about how their life hasn’t really changed, two Muslims walk in, and they fall silent.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2012.

Read original post here: Mass conversions: For Matli’s poor Hindus, ‘lakshmi’ lies in another religion

Canada: Ahmadiyya Muslim youth lift veil on Muslim myths

2012-01-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

The presentation in Perth last week also paid special attention to St. Mary, also known to Christians as the Virgin Mary, and presenting her life story from a Muslim perspective.

Photo: Desmond Devoy - Saadat Ahmad, left, and Bilal Khokhar stand
beside displays, ready for questions, during a public open house hosted by
the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association at the Perth and District Union
Library on Saturday, Jan. 14, as part of a national tour.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: EMC News |
By Desmond Devoy | Jan 19, 2012

EMC News - Jesus Christ is mentioned more times by name in The Holy Koran than is the name of the Prophet Mohammad.

While it isn't a numbers' game - though Jesus is mentioned by name 20 times to Mohammad's four - it is an example of just how many well-known figures from The Holy Bible also feature in The Holy Koran as well.

"Islam is the most misunderstood religion of all," said Bilal Khokhar, a Muslim missionary from Ottawa, during a public open house hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association of Canada (AMYA) at the Perth and District Union Library on Saturday, Jan. 14, as part of a national tour. "A religion should not be judged on sinners, but on saints."

Khokhar noted that Islam is a religion of peace, and that Christianity, too, has been hijacked by extremists in the past.

"Jesus came to establish peace," Khokhar pointed out. "He didn't say go and do the crusades."

"We are targeting a lot of the smaller towns (to hold open houses)," said Saadat Ahmad, the AMYA's director of industry and trade. "People have a lot more interest in religion and the development of the world (there)... (and we want) to dispel myths and misconceptions about Islam."

So far, the campaign has hit 254 towns across Canada, reaching more than 1.3 million people. Along the way, Ahmad has found people to be "pretty open and receptive to the message. They ask very intelligent questions."

Many of the questions surround Islamic Sharia law, and just where the hijab, burqua and other head and face coverings for Muslim women fit in to their faith. "We are not in favour of implementing Sharia law in to (Canadian) law," said Ahmad. "The Prophet Mohammad did not impose Sharia law in Mecca."

"Even if the ruler is Muslim, he cannot enforce Sharia law," added Khokhar. "We believe in the separation of church and state, or state and mosque."

The issue of face coverings for Muslim women has also been in the news of late with the Canadian government's decision that women who are taking part in the citizenship ceremony should have to show their face.

"It is correct," said AMYA volunteer Armaghan Chaudhry of the ministry of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism's decision. "When it comes down to an identification of a person, how do you validate that?"

Ahmad agreed that "whey you have such a situation, it is OK," that women reveal their face. "The full-face cover, that is more of a cultural thing, it's totally cultural," added Ahmad.

"There is no compulsion in Islam as far as clothing goes," said Chaudhry, who added that if he sees someone doing something he deems to be sinful, "I have a right to tell them not to do it, but that is it."

Another concept that non-Muslims have understanding jihad. "Jihad is just a struggle," said Ahmad.

"It does not mean you go out and commit suicide," through suicide bombings. "Jihad is a struggle within yourself," added Khokhar.

The presentation in Perth last week also paid special attention to St. Mary, also known to Christians as the Virgin Mary, and presenting her life story from a Muslim perspective.

"The Holy Koran also confirms that she is a virgin mother and talks a great deal about her," said Ahmad.

Indeed, the Koran devotes an entire chapter to her, a fact Ahmad says surprises many people he speaks to.

"They think it (the Koran) is all about the Prophet Mohammad," Ahmad said. "That is what every Muslim aspires to be, like Mary," added Khokhar.

desmond.devoy@metroland.com

Read original post here: Youth lift veil on Muslim myths

Indonesia: Dismay After Indonesian Atheist Charged With Blasphemy

2012-01-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chairman Ifdhal Kasim urged the police to remain neutral and not be forced to act by the majority.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe
By Camelia Pasandaran | January 20, 2012

Police on Friday confirmed that they had charged a man with blasphemy after he was reported by the Indonesia Council of Ulema.

Dharmasraya Police Chief Sr. Comr. Chairul Aziz told the Jakarta Globe on Friday that the district branch of the council, known as MUI, and other Islamic organizations believed Alexander, 31, had defiled Islam by using passages from the Koran to denounce the existence of God.

Alexander, a civil servant, is facing five years in jail for writing “God does not exist” on a Facebook page he moderated called “Ateis Minang” (“Minang Atheists”).

Chairul said the issue was that Alexander had used the Koran to highlight his atheist views.

“So it meets the criteria of tainting religion, in this case Islam.”

Blasphemy, which carries a five-year sentence, is defined under the Criminal Code as publicly expressing feelings or doing something that spreads hatred, abuse or taints certain religions in Indonesia in a way that could cause someone to disbelieve religion.”

National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chairman Ifdhal Kasim urged the police to remain neutral and not be forced to act by the majority.

“They should protect freedom of expression, instead of listening too much to the majority,” Ifdhal told the Globe. “Police should remain neutral instead of upholding the law subjectively.”

He also lashed out at MUI, saying the body was not even a state institution.

“If everyone does whatever MUI says, the law will be absurd.”

A member of a 600-strong atheist organization in Jakarta, meanwhile, said the case was a clear breach of human rights.

He would not be identified because of fears for his safety.

“If MUI thinks that there’s an imaginary friend up there, it doesn’t mean people should believe it,” he said. “Why is it that we cannot criticize religion? This is against freedom of expression and human rights.”

Read original post here: Dismay After Indonesian Atheist Charged With Blasphemy

Canada" Faith and interfaith - Religious groups discuss rights

2012-01-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

Speakers from the communities of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Sikhism will gather for the afternoon.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Times Colonist
By Times Colonist | January 19, 2012

Representatives from six of the world's religions will gather Jan. 29 at the University of Victoria to discuss the links between religious freedom and human rights.

Speakers from the communities of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Sikhism will gather for the afternoon.

Event organizer Ahmadiyya Muslim Rizwan Peerzada said notions of terrorism and killing have no place in any of the world's religions, which are all based on human love and compassion.

The World Religions Conference is at the David Lam Auditorium. Further information and registration details can be found online at

www.islamevents.ca.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Read original post here: Religious groups discuss rights

Faith and common sense: Muslim without sharia?

2012-01-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

For Mr. Gingrich to ask Muslims to publicly “give up sharia” is akin to asking them to publicly give up the Koran because sharia is simply the Islamic code that guides everyday Muslim beliefs and actions.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Washington Post
By Harris Zafar | January 19, 2012

On Tuesday, January 17th, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich said that the only way he would ever support a Muslim for the presidency of the United States is if that person would “commit in public to give up sharia,” thereby continuing his trend to exhibit his ignorance on the subject of Islamic law (sharia) as well as his ignorance of the United States Constitution.

To be fair, Mr. Gingrich did say that “a truly modern person who happened to worship Allah would not be a threat,” thereby acknowledging the fact that there are indeed trustworthy and moderate Muslims. This statement expresses that he does not condemn all Muslims wholesale, which is encouraging, and I applaud him for those words.

On the other hand, I’m disappointed with his lack of understanding of sharia and the United States Constitution itself when he then continues to say “a person who belonged to any kind of belief in sharia, any kind of effort to impose that on the rest of us, would be a mortal threat.” This is in line with his previous comments, calling sharia “totally abhorrent to the Western world” and “a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.” He suggests there are “violent jihadis” who use violence to spread sharia, as well as “stealth jihadis” who use cultural, religious and intellectual means to manipulate sharia into legislation. So whether the Muslim is violent or not, apparently we all have sharia on the mind.

The hysteria around sharia continues to grow, especially with the GOP presidential primaries in full swing. The message is that we better do something fast before sharia law usurps the American Constitution. This exposes their absolute ignorance of sharia and the American Constitution itself. The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution suffices to protect the Constitution as “the supreme law of the land.” Furthermore, the Establishment Clause prohibits the federal government from establishing or preferring any religion (including Islam) in the United States. No law can trump the Constitution of the United States

Besides, there is nothing in Islam’s teachings about taking over the law of the land. The Koran, Islam’s holy scripture, instructs that absolute justice, not religion, must be the ruling government’s guiding principle, irrespective of different faiths, races, etc.

For Mr. Gingrich to ask Muslims to publicly “give up sharia” is akin to asking them to publicly give up the Koran because sharia is simply the Islamic code that guides everyday Muslim beliefs and actions. Sharia is far from merely a set of punishments or legal obligations. Rather, it is a set of obligations of a personal and private nature dictated by faith. A religious legal system cannot be imposed in the current global society with people of different faiths in all countries.

People like Mr. Gingrich cite some countries to assert that Muslims want to institute harsh punishments for certain crimes. There is no doubt that countries that claim to follow sharia have used it as an excuse to gain power and sanction religious extremism. No country in the world today has implemented a system of government that truly follows Islamic sharia.

When the Prophet Muhammad became the de facto ruler of Arabia, he required all residents be allowed to worship in peace and without oppression. Sharia teaches freedom of conscience and religion. The Koran goes as far as to oblige Muslims to fight on behalf of Jews, Christians and people of other faiths and to protect their churches, synagogues and temples from attack.

The Islamic system of punishment must be examined in the context of Islamic moral teachings, and the atmosphere of high moral standards that Islam first wishes to establish in a society. When that happens, society rises to such heights that crimes become very rare and unnatural. Without creating that society first – where everyone’s needs are met, where honesty, integrity and safety are accepted principles and crimes are an anomaly – no attempt can be made to institute criminal punishments. Islam does not command us to enact punishments. That’s putting the cart before the horse.

Although some exploit the sharia hysteria to rally the base in this election year, accusations levied against sharia are patently absurd. The nearly two dozen proposed bills to ban sharia in the United States are an exaggerated response to a non-existent and manufactured problem. I invite Mr. Gingrich, as well as lawmakers at all levels of government, to meet with us to better understand sharia’s role in the life of American Muslims.

Harris Zafar serves as the national spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community - the oldest Muslim organization in America - and is a frequent lecturer about Islam around the country. He can be contacted at harris.zafar@ahmadiyya.us.

Read original post here: Muslim without sharia?

Canada: Muslim visitors hope to end cultural misconceptions

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

"We hold tons and tons of dialogue throughout the year, where we bring different people together on different platforms and we talk about the commonalities that we have together rather than our differences."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desck
Source/Credit: Fort Saskatchewan Record
By Ben Proulx | January 19, 2012

Fort Saskatchewan recently played host to a Muslim group looking to dispel misconceptions about the Islamic

Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association of Canada (AMYA) sent a group of 15 youth volunteers out to the Fort on Saturday in an effort to counter terrorism and to educate the general public on Islam.

According to Rizwan Rabbani, national executive director of AMYA, the cross-country campaign, which began last year, is about showing a unified voice against terrorism and uniting those of different beliefs.

"We have a pamphlet that shows that Muslims are against terrorism," Rabbani said. "There is a quote from the holy Quran that's very important, because it says 'If you kill one person, it's like you've killed all of mankind.' Basically, the point of going door to door is to disprove myths and misconceptions that are out there about Islam.

"There are a lot of people out there who believe that Islam is a bad religion, the holy Quran is a bad book, and so on and so forth. We, as Canadian Muslims, don't find anything bad with Islam. In fact, I was born and raised as a Canadian Muslim, and I consider myself a pretty OK guy."

He added the canvassing campaign, which has approximately 2,300 volunteers across the country, is a two-way endeavour that helps not only the general public, but also the youth volunteers.

"Rather than having youth running around on the streets over the weekend, this is another way to get the youth to participate in their religion, and they are learning to promote religious harmony," Rabbani said.

The canvassing tour is also about promoting religious harmony, according to Rabbani.

"We hold tons and tons of dialogue throughout the year, where we bring different people together on different platforms and we talk about the commonalities that we have together rather than our differences," he said.

Rabbani said that, from his own personal experience, the prairies and Western Canada as a whole have been very receptive to the canvassing efforts.

"I've never had a single person tell me to go away or that they didn't want us. Nobody's looking at us and immediately saying we're bad people," he said.

Rabbani said it's important to promote that unity among religions, and that the world would be a happier place if there was no religious misconceptions or hostility.

"We can all live together as brothers and sisters of different faiths. We can all talk about our commonalities." Rabbani said.

Read original post here: Muslim visitors hope to end cultural misconceptions

New Zealand: Hundreds of Muslims gather for Peace Conference in Manukau

2012-01-21T04:00:00.000-08:00

In a special session for guests and delegates starting at 10:30am, chief missionary Maulana Shafiq-ur-Rehman will address this issue and explain how the Holy Qur’an has the answers to today’s issues.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Scoop.co.nz
By AMJ-NZ | January 21, 2012

Hundreds of Ahmadi Muslims are gathering in Manukau for the 23rd Annual Religious Conference on Saturday January 28, it was announced today.

Mohammad Iqbal, National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in New Zealand, believes that the current phase of political, social and financial instability across the globe has a direct correlation with the lack of justice, fairness, inequitable spread of wealth and loss of true religious values.

“It is important for New Zealanders to understand that we are not isolated from the troubles of other major nations, and we must look within ourselves to ensure that our own values and practices do not create an imbalance which deprives any one sector of our community, said Iqbal. "We have to be fair and just in our dealings at all levels to ensure that we as a nation strive to foster peace and harmony through tolerance and respect for each other."

In a special session for guests and delegates starting at 10:30am, chief missionary Maulana Shafiq-ur-Rehman will address this issue and explain how the Holy Qur’an has the answers to today’s issues.

“Islam is a faith which provides a complete code of life, revealed to the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him),” Mr Rehman says. “In all dealings a Muslim should act with respect, honesty and fairness towards others. This is the basic underlying commandment.”

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a religious organisation, international in its scope. It is acknowledged worldwide for its sincere efforts to promote peace.

The annual convention is celebrated internationally with tens of thousands of participants in countries including Australia, England, Germany, Canada and the United States of America.

“The primary purpose of this convention is to help people personally experience religious benefits and enhance their knowledge,” Mr Iqbal says. “Our aim is to educate people on the true teachings of Islam in order to lessen ignorance and by extension violence, misunderstanding and mistrust.”

The convention will be held at 20 Dalgety Drive, Wiri Manukau on Saturday, January 28 starting at 11:30am. The event is open to the public with refreshments and lunch provided by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Read original post here: Hundreds of Muslims gather for Peace Conference in Manukau

Indonesia: Man arrested for not believing in god

2012-01-21T02:00:00.000-08:00

A number of residents came to Alexander’s office in Pulau Punjung, Dharmasraya, on Wednesday, and attacked him before he was taken to the Dharmasraya Police office. He is now in police custody.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: ADNKronos
By AKI / IGN | January 20, 2011

Jakarta, 20 Jan. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - A 30 year-old Indonesian civil servant indentified as Alexander was arrested Friday for blasphemy after creating a Facebook fan page titled Ateis Minang (Minang Atheist), which was labeled ‘liked’ by some 1,238 Facebook users.

Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Chairul Azi from West Java's Dharmasraya regency said that the man was arrested because of his writings on the fan page and his direct statements saying that he did not believe in God.

“He has triggered unrest among local residents,” Chairul told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Alexander is facing a maximum sentence of five years in jail if found guilty.

On the fan page, Alexander, who acknowledges Islam as his religion on his identity card, says that he is an atheist of Minang descent from Padang, West Sumatra, which is a Muslim stronghold.

Alexander also declared that he did not believe in angels, devils, heaven and hell, as well as other ‘myths’.

“He said he realized what he had said and was prepared to lose his job to defend his beliefs,” Chairul said.

A number of residents came to Alexander’s office in Pulau Punjung, Dharmasraya, on Wednesday, and attacked him before he was taken to the Dharmasraya Police office. He is now in police custody.

Dharmasraya Regent Adi Gunawan said that he had yet to decide whether or not Alexander would be dismissed from his post within the Dharmasraya Development Planning Board.

“I will await the legal process and decide later about his employment status,” Adi said, pointing out that Alexander, who had worked for Bappeda since 2010, had not yet been granted permanent status.

The regent said that Alexander told him that he had learned about atheism while studying at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java.

“I told him that there was no place in this country for his beliefs,” he said.

Indonesia acknowledges six official religions, comprising of Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhism and Confucianism.

The regent further said that he would take additional steps to strengthen religious understanding among civil servants working in his region, adding that he had not yet found any other atheist civil servants.

A movement demanding the release of Alexander has appeared on the Ateis Minang fan page, with which some 432 Facebook users have contended by supporting another movement titled “Gerakan 10,000 Urang Minang Memblokir Ateis Minang” (10,000 Minang People Resisting Ateis Minang).

Read original post here: Indonesia: Man arrested for not believing in god

Pakistan: Banned Jamaatud Dawa and terrorist leader don’t want Ahmadis praying in Pindi

2012-01-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

The followers of JuD leader Hafiz Saeed, who has been declared a terrorist leader by the UN for his role in establishing the banned Jihadi outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba, appealed to “all Muslims brothers” to gather at HFH at noon on January 29 to force the Ahmadis to cease all acts of worship in the locality.

Anti-Ahmadiyya banners are openly displayed in Rawalpindi

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Azam Khan | January 21, 2012

Threaten rally on 29th to have community’s religious centre shut down

RAWALPINDI: The threats against the Ahmadi community keep coming. This time a ‘banned’ Jihadi organisation is joining hands with local traders to hold a rally near an Ahmadi religious centre in Satellite Town, Rawalpindi.

A number of banners put up around the town by adherents to the Ahle Hadith school of thought advertising a rally close to an Ahmadi worship site near Holy Family Hospital (HFH) against the “unconstitutional” activities of the marginalised community. This comes just weeks after Ahmadis living in F-Block of Satellite Town began seeing a number of banners with bigoted messages cropping up in the area.

The followers of JuD leader Hafiz Saeed, who has been declared a terrorist leader by the UN for his role in establishing the banned Jihadi outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba, appealed to “all Muslims brothers” to gather at HFH at noon on January 29 to force the Ahmadis to cease all acts of worship in the locality.

“The situation has created a hostile environment for us…they are being forced to flee from the area to protect their families,” a member of the Ahmadi community said.

“Local people have no issue with us, but some people from outside the area have instigated a campaign against us,” another member said.

“[Ahmadis], a few years ago, purchased a building in Satellite Town from their own people and set up a worship place, from where, in addition to preaching in the area, they are creating problems for neighbours”, a Jamaatud Dawa worker said.

However, JuD Spokesperson Asif Khursheed said that Jamiat Ahale Hadith has no direct connection with JuD. “Our concentration is only on the Difa-e-Pakistan Council to be held on January 21 at Liaqat Bagh in Rawalpindi,” he said. “But yes, we enjoy a cordial relationship with Jamiat Ahal-e-Hadith,” he added.

A resident of F- Block said that the Ahmadi community now fears recurrences of recent attacks on their community, like May 2010 in
Lahore, where 93 people were killed.

The Express Tribune spoke to a number of Ahmadis, who emphasised that the community had committed no unlawful activities and pled for the hate campaign to stop so they could feel safe in the area.

“The building was built after Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya purchased the land. As a registered organisation, under the relevant rules they can carry out worship in the building”, said a senior member of the Ahmadi community, asking not to be identified. He added that after getting permission from the district administration, they installed moveable barriers and a few security guards every Friday after last year’s attack in Lahore.

“We removed the barriers and guards from the main road in front of the building after some people objected to their presence “, he added. He explained that the religious centre was shifted to the current building because the old centre in a building near Committee Chowk could not accommodate worshippers.

‘Unconstitutionally’ patriotic?

A Rawalpindi-based research scholar said that the contribution of Ahmadis to Pakistan is significant. “Just like other Pakistanis, we are very loyal to both, the country and the Constitution of Pakistan,” he said, adding that they are contributing in every field.

Nobel Prize winner Dr Abdul Salam and the first foreign minister Zafarullah Khan, who Muhammad Ali Jinnah referred to as “my son”, were both Ahmadis, but they were loyal to Pakistan, and like other Pakistanis, they earned a good name for their motherland.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2012.

Read original post here: What ban?: Jamaatud Dawa don’t want Ahmadis praying in Pindi

Pakistan: National Assembly record declaring Ahmedis as minority declassified; audio records were lost in fire, NA claims

2012-01-20T21:00:00.001-08:00

...[T]he Leader of Opposition in the Senate Abdul Ghafoor Haidary has also formally contacted the National Assembly Secretariat for access to the parliamentary record pertaining to declaring Ahmedis as minority.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The News | International
By Tahir Khalil | January 20, 2012

ISLAMABAD: The secret parliamentary record, declaring Ahmedis as a minority was declassified here on Thursday.

National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza has approved the opening of the secret record of the constitutional amendment after 38 years. The entire record of the secret Ahmedi Amendment Bill has, therefore, been declassified.

The third constitutional amendment, declaring Ahmadis as minority, was passed by the National Assembly during the tenure of Prime Minister ZA Bhutto on September 17, 1974. The entire house was declared as standing committee for the purpose, and its sessions were held in camera.

During four sessions, the then head of Jamat-e-Ahmadiya Mirza Tahir Ahmed ^{[SIC *]} had given arguments in support of his stance, and the Attorney General Yahya Bakhtiar had conducted his detailed cross arguments.

The written record was kept sealed as the entire proceedings were held in camera. Under the Official Secret Act, any document can be held secret for 30 years before it is opened. Sources have revealed that audio records pertaining to the secret Ahmedi Amendment Bill had gutted during a fire in 1993 during Benazir tenure.

The preparation and printing the secret record of declaring Ahmedis as minority has cost the National Assembly Rs4.6 million, which has been declassified and kept in the Parliament House Library.

Meanwhile, the Leader of Opposition in the Senate Abdul Ghafoor Haidary has also formally contacted the National Assembly Secretariat for access to the parliamentary record pertaining to declaring Ahmedis as minority.

----------
* At the time of the hearing, His Holiness, Mirza Nasir Ahmad was the spirtual leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya community.

-- Slightly edited to remove offending word used by The News reporter.

Read original post here: NA record declaring Ahmedis as minority declassified

Pakistan: Banned JuD promises Imran Khan treat at Difa-e-Pakistan convention

2012-01-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

"We only want to show our hatred for the US and India through this gathering…we want them to etch it on their coffins that the nation is united and will defend the nuclear capability of Pakistan at any cost.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By Owais Jafri | January 18, 2012

MULTAN: The Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) said on Wednesday that their January 29 Difa-e-Pakistan gathering would be attended by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Munawar Hassan and Awami League chief Sheikh Rasheed among other religious and political party leaders. The JuD added that they had confirmed their presence for the rally.

Addressing a gathering in Multan, the JuD leadership vowed that they would not step back and demanded the political and military leadership devise their decisions and policies keeping this in mind.

JuD has been very active recently in trying to unite people for the Difa-e-Pakistan convention in Multan on January 29.

JuD added that only an nuclear capable and armed Pakistan can survive in the future and that it should be defended at every cost.

They said that conspiracies were being hatched against Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, in the shape of declaring the country a failed or terrorist state.

‘Secular forces have no attachment to Pakistan’

Hafiz Saeed, President JuD, said “we will not let Pakistan slide into the hands of secular forces in Pakistan as they have no attachment or relation with Pakistan.”

He added that the nation had come out of its ‘slumber’ and the government too should also come out from “US slavery”.

“The drone attacks are proof that the level of loyalty of the government to the US and western powers is incomparable but at the same time, the fury of the people of Pakistan has also become immeasurable and it will sweep away the government.”

Saeed further said,“ I am happy to see the response of registration from the students, lawyers and civil society and farmers from Punjab for the biggest convention in the history of Pakistan to be held in Multan. We only want to show our hatred for the US and India through this gathering…we want them to etch it on their coffins that the nation is united and will defend the nuclear capability of Pakistan at any cost.”

Read original post here: JuD promises Imran Khan treat at Difa-e-Pakistan convention

KYRGYZSTAN: Ahmadis "have not been able to pray and worship together"

2012-01-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

Since July 2011, "we have not been able to pray and worship together", an Ahmadi Muslim who wished to remain unnamed for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 on 17 December 2011.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | EU Desk
Source/Credit: Forum 18 News Service
By Mushfig Bayram | January 18, 2012

Since July 2011, "we have not been able to pray and worship together", an Ahmadi Muslim complained to Forum 18 News Service.

Kyrgyzstan's State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA) has denied registration – or the right to legally exist - to their communities in four locations, citing a National Security Service (NSS) secret police claim that Ahmadi Muslims are a "dangerous movement [because it is] against traditional Islam".

Only 135 communities of the state-backed Muslim Board and three Russian Orthodox have gained registration since the repressive Bakiev-era Religion Law came into force in January 2009.

Hundreds of mosques, Protestant churches, Jehovah's Witness and Hare Krishna communities have been left without registration, which requires not only 200 adult citizen founders and SCRA approval but approval from local keneshes (councils).

Jehovah's Witnesses failed in their court challenges over three keneshes' refusal to approve their lists of founders. "The deputies do not like the Jehovah's Witnesses, and made a decision to refuse to endorse their list," Ardak Kokotayev, Chair of Naryn city Kenesh, told Forum 18.

Kyrgyzstan's State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA) has given state registration, or the right to legally exist, to only 138 organisations since the repressive Bakiev-era 2009 Religion Law came into force in January 2009. An essential part of the registration process is gaining the approval of local keneshes (councils) for a notarised list of at least 200 adult permanent resident citizen founders of a religious community, with full identification details of each founder. Some keneshes have claimed that the reason they have not approved lists is because the SCRA has not issued Regulations to implement the Law, and Forum 18 News Service has found that the SCRA has challenged a court decision ordering it to register three communities. The continued obstruction comes as SCRA officials have threatened to close down mosques in the southern Osh Region, but this threat does not appear to have been carried out.

No progress has been made by the authorities in dealing with registration applications from – among others - hundreds of mosques, unregistered Protestant churches, and the Hare Krishna community. Unregistered religious activity is – against human rights standards Kyrgyzstan has agreed to implement – banned. Many people are afraid to identify themselves as founders to local and national authorities, even if a community is large enough to have 200 potential founders, and local human rights defenders have condemned the Law as "against the Constitution and discriminatory"
(see F18News 16 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1655).

"Against our constitutional right of freely choosing our faith or religion"

The SCRA has denied registration to the Ahmadi Muslim community in the capital Bishkek and in three different regions across the country, citing a National Security Service (NSS) secret police claim that Ahmadi Muslims are a "dangerous movement, against traditional Islam"
(see F18News 21 December 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1650).

Since July 2011, in the wake of an SCRA warning not to meet, "we have not been able to pray and worship together", an Ahmadi Muslim who wished to remain unnamed for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 on 17 December 2011.

The central Ahmadi mosque in Bishkek remains closed for worship, with only one community member remaining to guard the building.

"Our motto is: love for all, hatred for none," the Ahmadi Muslim lamented. The authorities "do not want to see anything, and hear anything about what the Ahmadi Muslims are or do", he complained to Forum 18. "We are not harmful to anyone or to society."

Ahmadi Muslims have heard that the SCRA is thinking of introducing an official version of Islam, and banning all other Islamic schools of thought. "This is not fair, and against our constitutional right of freely choosing our faith or religion."

SCRA Director Ormon Sharshenov and SCRA Chief Specialist Yusupzhan Kadyrazhiyev both declined to talk to Forum on 12 January.

When will Regulations to implement Law be produced?

Many keneshes claim that they cannot approve notarised lists of founders because the SCRA has still not produced Regulations to implement the Religion Law. There have been persistent delays on the part of officials in the SCRA and its predecessor agencies in issuing Regulations to implement the Law (see eg. F18News 13 August 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1336).

Forum 18 asked Odina Artykova, who oversees religious issues in the Education, Science, Information and Religion Department (which reports direct to the Prime Minister), why three years after the Religion Law entered into force in January 2009 implementation Regulations have not been produced. She responded on 12 January that "the status of the SCRA is under question at the moment", as "it may be placed under one of the ministries". She went on to state that the government "will bring clarity to this question soon".

Artykova also stated that the Religion Law will be changed in the second quarter of 2012 (see F18News 16 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1655).

SCRA and keneshes block registration applications

The SCRA has claimed not to know why 138 organisations (135 state-backed Muslim and three Russian Orthodox) have been able to gain local kenesh approval for their lists of founders since January 2009, but numerous others have not. Asked what those who cannot get kenesh approval can do, SCRA Director Sharshenov replied to Forum 18 "let them sue them in the courts" (see F18News 16 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1655).

But in some instances the SCRA has itself directly intervened to block registration applications. Jehovah's Witnesses have tried unsuccessfully to register their branches in the southern Naryn, Osh and Jalal-Abad Regions, and told Forum 18 on 10 January that the keneshes and the SCRA "instead of helping us to register have blamed each other for why we cannot be registered".

The Jehovah's Witnesses then filed a complaint against the SCRA in Bishkek's Inter-District Economic Court, which on 21 July 2011 ordered the SCRA to register the Jehovah's Witnesses in all three regions. However, the SCRA appealed and on 6 October 2011 Bishkek City Court overruled the lower court's decision. Asked by Forum 18 on 20 December 2011 why the SCRA did not want to register the Jehovah's Witnesses, SCRA Director Sharshenov stated that the lists of founders submitted to the SCRA by the Jehovah's Witnesses were not endorsed by the local keneshes in the three regions.

"The deputies do not like the Jehovah's Witnesses"

Between September and December 2010, Ardak Kokotayev (Chair of Naryn city Kenesh), Bakytbek Adylov (then Chair of Jalal-Abad city Kenesh), and Davletbek Alimbekov (Chair of Osh city Kenesh) all refused in letters – which Forum 18 has seen – to endorse the Jehovah's Witnesses' founders' lists. All three state that although the Religion Law requires local keneshes to endorse such lists, the national authorities have not provided mechanisms or a procedure how to do this.

Kokotayev of Naryn Kenesh told Forum 18 that the Kenesh is a collective body of deputies, and they make joint-decisions. "The deputies do not like the Jehovah's Witnesses, and made a decision to refuse to endorse their list," he told Forum 18 from Naryn on 12 January.

Asked whether it is within the Kenesh's power to refuse endorsement if lists of founders and their signatures are in accordance with the Religion Law, Kokotayev repeated that "we make joint decisions. If we do not want to do something, then we decide not to do it".

Nurdin Ermatov, new Chair of Jalal-Abad Kenesh, told Forum 18 on 12 January that "I am new in this job, and I do not know why Adylov made this decision". He stated that he did not even know until the conversation with Forum 18 that the Kenesh deals with issues under the Religion Law. "I will look into the matter," he said.

"Why should local keneshes decide?"

Human rights defenders Valentina Gritsenko of Justice, a human rights group in Jalal-Abad, and Dmitri Kabak of Open Viewpoint in Bishkek both told Forum 18 on 12 January that keneshes "must endorse founders' lists, if they are in accordance with the Law," Gritsenko said.

"Why should local keneshes decide whether or not a group of peaceful religious believers can publicly worship?" Kabak asked. "The keneshes should not be given such powers; it is against the Constitution."

Kabak added that "unfortunately these problems cannot be addressed at the moment on the Constitutional level, since there is no independent Constitutional Chamber or Court in Kyrgyzstan."

Consequences

Meetings by unregistered communities for worship are not only illegal (despite the human rights standards Kyrgyzstan has agreed to implement); it can also have direct consequences for those who take part in such meetings.

Baptists from the eastern Issyk-Kul Region (whose capital is Karakol) told Forum 18 on 12 January that their unregistered fellow-believers in the Region's Ak-Terek village were mobbed several times in spring 2011 by a group of villagers. The villagers demanded that the Baptists either renounce their faith or leave the village. The ten-member Church are all Kyrgyz by nationality, and all born in Ak-Terek.

In May 2011 local police held a meeting with village elders and the Baptists, and demanded that local people stop disturbing the Baptists, and that the Baptists gain state registration. There have been no further disturbances, but Baptists commented to Forum 18 that if the Church had been registered – an impossibility owing to the requirement to have 200 founders - "those mobs would not have been so bold in harassing the Church".

Jehovah's Witnesses in Bishkek told Forum 18 that their congregations have been able to meet for worship in private homes, but "cannot carry out open and public activity". Also, their meetings in private homes have been raided. They did not want to share details of this, for fear of state reprisals. But "each time they are raided they are told that they must stop religious activity until they have official registration".

Artykova of the Education, Science, Information and Religion Department told Forum 18 that "communities who are not registered should be able to carry on religious activities in their private homes even without registration". But she added that "they cannot carry out public religious activity until they receive registration". She also commented that "no government agencies have the right to interfere in the private life of citizens".

Power struggle?

Kurbanaly Uzakov, the Head of the SCRA's Osh Department told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that he asked "local officials in the Osh Region to close 177 local mosques", RFE/RL reported on 30 September 2011. The state-backed Muslim Board's Osh representatives told RFE/RL that they do not see a threat of closure, as the mosques had imams appointed by the Board.

Local independent media representatives and human rights defenders have told Forum 18 that as of 18 January, no mosques had been closed in the region. Some suggested that the threat related to a power struggle between the state-backed Muslim Board and the SCRA.

SCRA Chief Specialist Kadyrazhiyev in Bishkek claimed to Forum 18 on 20 December 2011 that the SCRA threat was only a warning. "We just wanted to compel them to begin to register," he explained. "I do not think we want to close down those mosques." (END)

Read original post here:KYRGYZSTAN: "We have not been able to pray and worship together"

Ahmadiyya Muslims | PBS - Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

2012-01-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad preached what he called “jihad of the pen” or persuasion through discourse, saying that violence was not necessary to defend and propagate Islam.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: PBS - Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
By Kim Lawton | PBS | January 20th, 2012

KIM LAWTON (Correspondent): In New York’s Times Square, it was an unexpected sight: Nestled amid ads for rum and hit TV shows, a sign proclaiming that Muslims are for peace. The billboard was part of a high-profile campaign by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA.

HARRIS ZAFAR (National Spokesman, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA): We just want people to know if you’re going to judge Islam, judge it based off its true teachings, not based off of this political ideology that’s now all over the Internet and all over television.

LAWTON: Ahmadis have been active in several cities across the country sponsoring bus ads and leafleting drives, trying to get out the message that Muslims are for peace, for loyalty, and for life. They say ten years after 9/11, that message is more important than ever.

An Ahmadiyya Muslim volunteer hands out flyers in Times SquareZAFAR: We want to stress that there are Muslims, especially living in America, that emphasize on peace, liberty, democracy and just the freedoms that Americans love, and there have been so many people that ask where are these modern Muslims that promote these ideals, and we’ve been promoting these ideals for a long time.

Watch Ahmadiyya Muslims on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

LAWTON: The campaign has disturbed some Muslims who resent the idea of the controversial Ahmadiyya Muslim Community speaking for Islam. Many mainstream Muslims say they, too, hold those ideals, although they have significant theological differences with Ahmadis. John Esposito teaches Islamic studies at Georgetown University.

JOHN ESPOSITO (Professor of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University): The majority of Muslims would view the Ahmadiyya— the Ahmadiyya would either be seen as not Muslim, or they would certainly be seen as a very, very marginal group, you know, at best by most mainstream Muslims.

LAWTON: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a reform movement that grew out of Sunni Islam. It was founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be the metaphorical second coming of Jesus and the divine guide, whose appearance was foretold by the Prophet Muhammad. Most Ahmadis believe he was the long-awaited mahdi or messiah.

Saliha Malik, National President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA Women's AuxiliarySALIHA MALIK (National President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA Women’s Auxiliary): We believe that the promised messiah has come, as he was promised by the Holy Prophet so many years ago, 14 centuries ago. He came according to all those prophecies at the right time, and we have accepted him.

LAWTON: Naseem Mahdi is national vice-president and missionary-in-charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. He says Mirza Ghulam Ahmad came to bring Muslims back to the true teachings of Islam.

NASEEM MAHDI (National Vice President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA): According to the prophecies of Prophet Muhammad, that when the messiah would come he will be a sort of an arbitrator. He used the word arbitrator. That he will tell you what is right and what is wrong, because with the passage of time, Muslims have practically abandoned the real teaching of Islam, the real teaching of the Holy Qur’an.

ESPOSITO: In Islam, the notion is that the Prophet Mohammad is the final prophet, the last of the prophets, and so then the question becomes for, in the eyes of many other Muslims, are these people really Muslims or not?

LAWTON: Many Ahmadis respond that while they do believe Muhammad was the final prophet to bring the law, that didn’t preclude a prophet like Mirza Ghulam Ahmad from coming to bring Muslims back to that final law.

post01-ahmadiyyamuslimsZAFAR: He came to revive the teachings of God, and he came bringing the truth.

LAWTON: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad preached what he called “jihad of the pen” or persuasion through discourse, saying that violence was not necessary to defend and propagate Islam.

ZAFAR: He said we live in a time where jihad, an aggressive jihad by the sword, is no longer needed, because you don’t have to ever defend freedom of religion physically. He said we live in a time where you’re no longer physically attacked simply for being a Muslim. So he said jihad by the sword is done.

ESPOSITO: For many Muslims, and certainly in South Asia as the movement was developing, extraordinarily controversial, rejected, it was seen as the equivalent of heresy.

LAWTON: And that view persists. Today there are millions, some say tens of millions, of Ahmadi Muslims spread across 195 countries. In many parts of Asia and the Middle East they face severe persecution. In Pakistan, Ahmadis are even officially declared non-Muslim. They are legally forbidden to call themselves Muslims or their houses of worship mosques. And they are frequent targets of violence.

Naseem Mahdi, National Vice President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USAMAHDI: I go with this fear that during the night I might get a phone call that some of my very close loved ones have been kidnapped or killed or their properties have been looted, and this kind of fear is going on, and nobody can do anything.

LAWTON: Mahdi says it’s painful, but his faith forbids any kind of retaliation.

MAHDI: Islam promotes peace, and Islam does not need any kind of blood-shedding in the name of Islam.

LAWTON: According to Esposito, despite the persecution, Ahmadis have a strong missionary tradition.

ESPOSITO: Ahmadiyya in general are very concerned about spreading their faith. That’s very much part of what they do.

LAWTON: Ahmadis established a community in the US in 1920. They claim they were the first official American-Muslim organization. Their US headquarters is in Maryland, and they have thousands of members here. After the events of 9/11, Ahmadi leaders say they realized the need to do even more aggressive outreach, and the Muslims for Peace campaign began. They ratcheted the campaign up even further after the failed terrorism plot by a Muslim-American in Times Square.

Muslims for Loyalty pamphletsZAFAR:We noticed that after the failed Times Square bombing attempt by Faisal Shahzad in May of 2010, that there was what people kept referring to as a deafening silence within the Muslim community. So that’s where we decided, well, hey, we’ve been here the longest, It’s incumbent upon us to do something.

LAWTON: They developed another project called Muslims for Loyalty, which emphasized the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings that Muslims should be loyal to the countries where they live.

ZEESHAN ELAHI (Ahmadi Volunteer): Just passing the message that we are loyal through the pen. People who’ve seen this today will know that Muslims are loyal to this country.

LAWTON: For the tenth anniversary of 9/11, they launched a blood drive called Muslims for Life. Their goal was to collect 10,000 units of blood.

MAHDI: Ten-thousand units would save 30,000 lives, which would be ten times the lives lost on that day of heinous crime against humanity ten years ago. We are promoting a religion which gives life and not destruction, which promotes peace and not terrorism, and this is not just a statement, but giving our blood.

Muslims for Life blood driveLAWTON: They ended up collecting nearly 12,000 units of blood, and they’re continuing to hold other blood drive events. Ahmadi outreach includes an active women’s movement.

MALIK: We are given a voice. Our community, the women have a voice. And we have, we are very well educated, and we are very knowledgeable about our religion.

LAWTON: And in many communities, Ahmadis are deeply involved in interfaith dialogue, although that can complicate relationships with mainstream Muslims. Esposito says US Ahmadis have an influence beyond their numbers.

ESPOSITO: Although they are a relatively small percentage of the American Muslim community, they play a significant role. They’ve been out there doing their work, but far more, I think, well organized and visible in terms of the public-relation side of things.

LAWTON: Ahmadis say they are just trying to live out the tenets of their faith.

ZAFAR: As part of the Ahmadi Muslim community, we believe that we have a true message, and we want people to know it.

LAWTON: And they pledge to continue those efforts, despite the controversy they may generate.

I’m Kim Lawton reporting.

Read original post here: Ahmadiyya Muslims | PBS - Frontline

UK: Long Lane church to be transformed into a mosque | Exclusive by Halesowen News

2012-01-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

The fast growing Ahmadiyya branch of Islam was established in 19th Century India and preaches the doctrine of Love for All - Hatred for None and the worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslims will visit Halesowen in March to bless the mosque.

Toby Ephram with Syed Mangour Ahmad and Fareed Ahmad outside
their new property (Photo: Halesowen News)

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Halesowen News
By Halesowen News | January 19, 2012

Halesowen’s Long Lane Methodist Church has been bought by local Muslims and will open as a fully functioning mosque and community centre in March.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, which runs the School Street mosque in Cradley Heath, bought the property for £460,000 and are spending tens of thousands more transforming the old church.

The premises has stood empty since the Methodists relocated to the nearby Crossway Centre in 2009.

President of the Long Lane Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Dr Masood Majoka is delighted with the new property.

He said: “For 102 years this wonderful building has been used for prayers and we are delighted to continue that tradition and we are looking forward to renovating it.

“We will have to make a few changes to the building to ensure that we face towards Mecca for prayers.”

“Our association is made up of 95 per cent local people and we picked this site because it came up for sale and has a big car park, is private from three sides and has two big halls that can be used.”

Blackheath and Halesowen Methodist circuit superintendent minister Paul Donnison explained why his church relocated.

He said: “We left Long Lane Methodist Church in Autumn 2009 as we had some of the issues associated with the upkeep of an older building.

“We purchased an alternative site, the Crossway Centre, Halesowen Road, and invested the proceeds of the sale in relocating there, where we are rengaging with the local community.”

He added: “We wish the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association success with its project at Long Lane.”

The fast growing Ahmadiyya branch of Islam was established in 19th Century India and preaches the doctrine of Love for All - Hatred for None and the worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslims will visit Halesowen in March to bless the mosque.

The association confirmed there are no current plans to erect a minaret on new mosque as it planned to do at its School Street premises in Cradley Heath.

Ahmadiyya Muslim association member Toby Ephram, who has done community outreach work in Cradley Heath, said: “It is an honour for His Holinesss Mirza Masroor Ahmad to bless the new mosque and we have invited the local MP, mayor, councillors and other members of the community to the event.

“We intend to have a community centre on the site which will be open for local people to use for free as we do not believe in charging for the use of our facilities.

“We will expect local counicllors, police officers and other groups to take advantage and use our meeting rooms and we want to help the community we have moved into in any way we can.

“This is a beautiful building and we are delighted to have prevented it from being demolished like other churches in the area.”

Read original post here: Long Lane church to be transformed into a mosque

Humanity First: Volunteers repair wells, communities in northern Ghana

2012-01-20T07:00:00.001-08:00

“It’s great that we have people willing to go (to Ghana), but it’s very expensive and requires a huge commitment,” he said. “Not everyone wants to fundraise all the time. We want to make a tangible difference at home in addition to sending people overseas when we can.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Daily Californian
By Christopher Yee | January 18, 2012

Instead of being surrounded by family and friends on Christmas Day, UC Berkeley junior Donovan McNiff spent the holiday refurbishing a well in a west African village.

The mood was nevertheless festive as the people of the village, Winkogo-la Bisi in northern Ghana, celebrated while McNiff and other volunteers worked on the village’s 40-year-old hand pump that had broken from age-related wear and tear.

“Once they understood what we were doing, all of a sudden all these women of every age come out in wild song and dance,” McNiff said. “I never imagined anyone getting that excited over water, but when you don’t have it, it becomes paramount.”

McNiff spent three weeks in Ghana with UC Berkeley alumnus Saad Karamat — who is still in Ghana conducting research — refurbishing 30 wells and repairing six others on a volunteer basis.

“People (in Ghana) will walk two to three miles one way to bring back water on their head,” Karamat said. “They have to make that trip two or three times a day, spending five to six hours a day just getting water. I know this is something where I could actually make a difference as an individual.”

The two worked with Shahid Malik, the project director for international humanitarian aid organization Humanity First USA’s Water for Life initiative, and a handful of local volunteers in order to complete all of the well work in a span of 10 days.

After those 10 days, Malik returned to the United States, leaving Karamat and McNiff to speak with villagers as part of Karamat’s research. Karamat was given a $10,000 research grant from the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Shortly after they arrived Dec. 22, Karamat began collecting quantitative data about the population and interviewing villagers to specifically look at the effects of water availability on health, education and socioeconomic status in Ghana.

“The hope is that this research will lead to more grants for Humanity First to do more work like this,” Karamat said. “Millions of people in Ghana have no access to clean water. Humanity First might refurbish 100 wells in a year, but why should they be capped at doing 100 wells when there are thousands of wells that are not operational anymore due to lack of maintenance?”

While conducting research and looking into ways to enable the Ghanaian people to maintain their own wells on a long-term basis, Karamat has been filming with the intention of making a documentary on Ghana’s need for clean water.

Given all of the goals he wishes to accomplish, Karamat said he is uncertain when he will return to the United States.

Since Humanity First USA is composed almost entirely of volunteers, Karamat and McNiff had to pay their own ways to Ghana. While Karamat was able to use part of his grant money to pay the approximately $2,000 airfare, McNiff had to rely on bake sale proceeds, donations and money out of his own pocket.

McNiff returned to the U.S. on Sunday after a 36-hour flight, and though he said he was concerned for Karamat’s well-being, he was confident that Karamat would succeed in his research and filming.

Energized after getting back to Berkeley, McNiff’s focus has shifted to what volunteer work he can do domestically.

He is the president of UC Berkeley’s branch of Humanity First USA — which Karamat founded in 2009 with the goal of initiating a Water for Life trip — and he said that the club is looking into opportunities to volunteer in Oakland elementary schools.

“It’s great that we have people willing to go (to Ghana), but it’s very expensive and requires a huge commitment,” he said. “Not everyone wants to fundraise all the time. We want to make a tangible difference at home in addition to sending people overseas when we can.”

Christopher Yee covers Berkeley communities.

Read original post here:

UK: UCL atheist society president resigns over offensive cartoon row, says 'did not appreciate the stress'

2012-01-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

"He did not appreciate the stress he would be under when dealing with a controversy like this, so he wanted to make way for someone else."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: BBC Asian Network
By Catrin Nye and Athar Ahmad | January 19, 2011

University College London University College London Union has asked the atheist society to remove the cartoon

The president of a London university atheist society has resigned over a row about an image of the Prophet Muhammad.

The society at University College London (UCL) published an image on its Facebook page showing "Jesus and Mo" having a drink at a bar.

A student Muslim group mounted a petition asking for its removal and the UCL Union also said it should go.

The atheist group has closed a counter-petition defending its "freedom of expression" but has not removed it.

UCL's Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society, said its president, Robbie Yellon, was stepping down to be replaced by former vice president Michael Thor.

"Robbie stepped aside because he signed up as president to organise events and run a student society," said Michael Paynter, secretary for the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies.

"He did not appreciate the stress he would be under when dealing with a controversy like this, so he wanted to make way for someone else."
'No need'

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association is continuing with its protest against the image, saying it has wider implications.

Adam Walker, the association's national spokesperson, said the two student groups had worked well together in the past and said the offence was unnecessary.
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The principle is more important than who is being attacked - this time it is Muslims and Christians but in the future it could be atheists themselves”

Adam Walker Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association spokesman

"The principle is more important than who is being attacked - this time it is Muslims and Christians but in the future it could be atheists themselves.

"There is no need to print these things other than to cause offence and history has told us that these things cause offence."

He added: "I wouldn't say we're specifically pursuing UCL atheist society, it's more about the broader principle."

The image that started the controversy was taken from an online satirical comic called Jesus and Mo.

The twice-weekly comic strip, running since 2005, depicts Jesus and what creators say is a "body double" of the Prophet Muhammad talking to a barmaid.

The row has prompted debate on the internet with prominent academic and author Richard Dawkins backing the atheist society.

UCL Union (UCLU) said in a statement: "The atheist society has agreed they will take more consideration when drawing up publicity for future events.

"The society was asked to remove the image because UCLU aims to foster good relations between different groups of students and create a safe environment where all students can benefit from societies regardless of their religious or other beliefs."

You can hear more on this story on Asian Network Reports on the BBC Asian Network.

Read original post here: Muhammad cartoon row leads to resignation

Indonesia: Eye on Extremism | ‘God Does Not Exist’ Comment Ends Badly for Indonesia Man

2012-01-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Gusrizal Gazahar, head of the West Sumtra chapter of the Council of Ulema (MUI), told local media that if he refused to repent, Alexander should lose his job.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe
By TJG | January 19, 2012

An Indonesian civil servant who posted “God does not exist” on his Facebook page has been taken into police custody for his own protection after he was badly beaten.

The man, identified as Alexander, 31, now faces the prospect of losing his job, or even being jailed, if he fails to repent and accept one of six official state religions.

Blasphemy carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

Local media reported that when Alexander arrived at work at the Dharmasraya Development Planning Board (Bappeda) on Wednesday, a group of men, also understood to comprise government officials, attacked and beat him before taking him to police.

Dharmasraya Police Chief Sr. Comr. Chairul Aziz told the Jakarta Globe that Alexander moderated a Facebook account titled “Ateis Minang” (Minang Atheists) and had written an update that “God does not exist.”

Chairul said he could not confirm the reports that Alexander was attacked but say that he had taken into protective custody to “anticipate anarchy.”

“Besides, he is also afraid of being intimidated or hurt.”

Alexander was quoted by Padangekspress.com as saying that he did not believe in God because of the amount of crime and disasters.

“If God indeed exists, why do bad things happen,” he was quoted as saying. “There should only be good things if God is merciful.”

Alexander said he was born a Muslim but ceased religious activities in 2008.

“I have no idea what the problem is. When I arrived at the office, a mob came and beat me, and took me to the police.”

Aziz said police would wait for a recommendation from the West Sumatra Coordinating Agency to Supervise Religion and Beliefs (Bakorpakem) as well as the Ministry of Religious Affairs before deciding on further action against Alexander.

“If they consider what he did was blasphemy, we will charge him.”

Gusrizal Gazahar, head of the West Sumtra chapter of the Council of Ulema (MUI), told local media that if he refused to repent, Alexander should lose his job.

“I want him to be fired,” he said.

Read original post here: ‘God Does Not Exist’ Comment Ends Badly for Indonesia Man

Will the US support for Pakistan ex-ambassador cause more harm than good?

2012-01-19T22:00:00.000-08:00

“We urge Pakistani authorities to resolve this matter swiftly and consistent with civilian rule of law and to prevent the judicial commission investigating Ambassador Haqqani from becoming a political tool for revenge against an honorable man.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Christian Science Monitor
By Howard LaFranchi | Jan 11, 2012

The former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, embroiled in a political scandal and government power struggle that have him under virtual house arrest in Islamabad, might normally find comfort in the letters of support that prominent South Asia scholars and some members of Congress have written on his behalf.

Usually in cases involving a declared “strategic partner” that has received billions of dollars in US assistance, the kind of gentle warning the State Department issued to Pakistan last week that it is “watching and monitoring the situation closely” would be a boon to the individual in question.

But so poisoned are US-Pakistan relations, so unpopular and suspect is the US in Pakistan, that Mr. Haqqani’s connections to – and shows of support from – the US may if anything be working against him.

Haqqani was Pakistan’s well-viewed ambassador to Washington until November, when he was recalled to Islamabad over a letter the US government received purportedly seeking Washington’s help in reining in Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence apparatus. (Ambassador Haqqani was featured at a Monitor-hosted breakfast, at which he gave a spirited defense of his country’s dealings with the US, the day he was summoned back to Islamabad.)

Haqqani, who is also a journalist and a former professor of international relations at Boston University, denied any role in the letter. But the uproar around the letter has evolved into what in Pakistan is called “memo-gate,” one of several political scandals under investigation by the Pakistani Supreme Court. Together they are threatening to bring down the country’s beleaguered civilian government.

In the meantime, Haqqani’s passport has been seized and he is not permitted to leave Islamabad, even though his wife remains in Washington.

Concerns in Washington over Haqqani’s treatment have prompted an outpouring of support.

First three US senators issued a statement expressing their concern over Haqqani’s “mistreatment” at the hands of Pakistani authorities.

“We are increasingly troubled by Ambassador Haqqani’s treatment since he returned home,” said Mark Kirk (R) of Illinois, Joe Lieberman (I) of Connecticut, and John McCain (R) of Arizona. “We urge Pakistani authorities to resolve this matter swiftly and consistent with civilian rule of law and to prevent the judicial commission investigating Ambassador Haqqani from becoming a political tool for revenge against an honorable man.”

Days later a group of 16 regional scholars and former ambassadors sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging the US to remain vigilant to the Haqqani case “to ensure that [he] is not physically harmed and that due process of law is followed.”

In their letter, the experts warned that their information suggested that Haqqani could face threats to his life as sectors of the Pakistani government furious over the Washington memo attempt to exploit the case to their advantage.

Citing the concerns of Haqqani’s legal counsel, the group said it worried that “Haqqani could be picked up by Pakistan’s intelligence services and intimidated, and even possibly tortured, into providing a statement that suits their interests.”

Adding that the case “follows an ominous trend in Pakistan,” the group noted that segments of the Pakistani media have already condemned Haqqani as “guilty of treason,” and cited recent assassinations of prominent leaders (for example, a governor who spoke out against Pakistan’s blasphemy law) and of journalists who sought a more tolerant and democratic country.

On Friday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland hardened an earlier statement on the Haqqani case, saying the US expects the former Washington envoy “will be accorded all due consideration under Pakistani law and in conformity with international legal standards.”

She said that part of the reason for the tougher statement was “to make clear that we’re watching.”

Some experts caution, however, that Pakistan does not have an encouraging track record in terms of international legal standards and respect for universal human rights. And they add that, given the country’s intense anti-American atmosphere, it is uncertain that demands from the US for a respect for the rule of law in Haqqani’s case will be heeded.

Read original post here: US support for Pakistan ex-ambassador could cause more harm than good