Ahmadiyya Muslim Community: Charity in the face of death

..[A] spokesman for the Ahmadiyya sect demonstrated the plural, tolerant form of behaviour we all wish people of faith would exhibit. He demonstrated a humility and decency that we all, when faced with polar opposition, would be best to exhibit.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Opinion
Source & Credit: Edmonton Sun | Canada
Editorial | June 4, 2010

http://www.edmontonsun.com/comment/editorial/2010/06/03/14253341.html

We live in a cynical age, often without good reason. Many of the social concerns that divide us along political or national lines are issues that have either improved dramatically over decades or ones statistically unlikely to ever affect the average person.

But we hear about them constantly, so we worry when we shouldn’t. When something scares us, it’s human nature to frame an issue as “us versus them,” or “left versus right.” We look for bad guys to justify our concerns.


So we were all granted an increasingly rare privilege this week when Edmontonians were introduced to the Ahmadiyya Muslims.

True, that introduction came in horrific circumstances, as locals were interviewed by media while worrying about family in the Middle East, attacked brutally at a mosque.

But within a few minutes, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya sect demonstrated the plural, tolerant form of behaviour we all wish people of faith would exhibit. He demonstrated a humility and decency that we all, when faced with polar opposition, would be best to exhibit.

When asked whether they would retaliate, he said what Ahmadiyya have said for nearly two centuries. “We retaliate by promoting peace.”

Across the Middle East, Orthodox Muslims have persecuted the Amadiyyah, who believe Muhammad was not their final prophet. In Syria, they’ve been nearly wiped out. In many countries, usually ruled with an iron fist by theocrats and religious potentates, they’ve been outlawed from identifying themselves as Muslims, including Pakistan, where the mosque attack took place.

But the reality is that, as with the average Israeli or Palestinian, many Muslims in those nations abhor violence, while fearing authority and the consequences of speaking up to defend peaceful, civilized behaviour. Though the vicious attack may shock the religiously disinclined or moderates in the west, Ahmadiyya Muslims — along with Zoroastrians and B’hais, also persecuted in the Middle East— have put up with it for so long, they are resilient.

And their continued attempts to prove that you can’t wipe out traits like peace, love and understanding will set an example for us all.

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