Source: The Sun | December 28, 2009
By Neil Nesperos for The Sun (San Bernardino)
CHINO [California] - Hundreds of Muslims this past weekend celebrated their annual convention at a new home.
About 1,200 members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the western United States attended the 24th Jalsa Salana, or annual convention, at the recently expanded and refurbished Baitul Hameed Mosque, 11941 Ramona Ave.
The new 12,000-square-foot facility - an administration building with a library, meeting rooms and a prayer hall - was more than prepared to handle the crowd.
"We're very happy that the mosque has reopened," said Hamid Rahman, a national vice president for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Naseem Mahdi, a missionary for the organization, agreed.
"We are all very excited about our new offices and our new facility," Mahdi said. "We consider it a house of God, open to all. Everybody, even non-Muslims, can worship God in this facility."
The convention included a number of talks in the meeting hall as well as a book sale in front of the mosque. Attendees were also able to have meals of curry and Dahl, or lentil soup.
Visitors also listened to talks about the message of Islam, translations of Quranic verses, directions for younger members as well as poem readings.
The community of Ahmadiyya Muslims, established in the 19th century in India by founder Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, is dedicated to a central tenet of "love for all and hatred for none."
Members work with other religious organizations to spread a message of tolerance, nonviolence and peace.
In the United States, the community has grown to tens of thousands of people.
Globally, its numbers are in the tens of millions, said Waseem Sayed, a community spokesman who attended the weekend celebration.
Recent events that have involved acts of violent Islamic extremism against Americans have reenergized the Ahmadiyya community to convey a message of peace and anti-violence, Sayed said.
"Definitely the major thing that these kinds of events is that we want to convey the message of sympathy for our fellow Americans, and we propagate the ideas we believe can put an end to suffering," Sayed said.
"Our belief is that true sympathy for God begins with true sympathy for human beings ... enough with `an eye for an eye' and more of `turn the other cheek.' "
The mosque, which originally opened in 1989, was shut down following a fire in the kitchen in April 2003. Firefighters were able to spare most of the mosque.
Since the fire, members of the mosque have been leasing space from neighboring churches for worship, but the community was able to celebrate and worship during the holy month of Ramadan at the Baitul Hameed mosque after its grand reopening in October.
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