Dellas, TX: Area Ahmadiyya Muslims concerned by bombings in Pakistan

Spokeperson Waseem Sayed of Ahmadiyya said Taliban extremists killed more than 80 worshipers (as of Saturday) at two Mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community during Friday prayer services.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff |
Source & Credit:  Star Local News
By Staff reports | May 30, 2010
Updated: June 4, 2010

Just a week after a blood drive and Humanity First programs for their Allen - Plano neighbors, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has seen tragedy strike its faithful.

Saima Sheikh, spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Allen, said friends and family at the local mosque on Hedgcoxe Road in Allen are concerned by the news about for those killed or injured when two mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community were bombed during prayers in Pakistan on Friday. Ahmadi witnesses are saying that the mosques are covered in blood, and a growing number in Plano and Allen are from Pakistan and concerned for and communicating with family, friends and members of the Ahmadiyya mosques there.


Spokesperson Waseem Sayed of Ahmadiyya said that Pakistani Government sanctions religious extremism and persecution against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which faithful describe as a dynamic, reformist and fast growing international movement within Islam. Founded in 1889, the Community spans over 190 countries with membership exceeding tens of millions. Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, established in 1921, is the first American-Muslim organization.

Mayors and police chiefs from Allen and Plano and religious leaders from several faiths attended the Inter-Faith Conference in Allen earlier this spring. Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the only Islamic organization to believe that the long-awaited messiah has come in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) of Qadian. Ahmad claimed to be the metaphorical second coming of Jesus of Nazareth and the divine guide, whose advent was foretold by the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. The Community believes that God sent Ahmad, like Jesus, to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed and reinstitute morality, justice and peace. Ahmad’s advent has brought about an unprecedented era of Islamic revival and moderation. He divested Islam of fanatical beliefs and practices by vigorously championing Islam’s true and essential teachings.

During his Friday Sermon, the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, condemned the terrorist attacks.

“Two of our mosques in Lahore were attacked by extremists. At the moment we do not have full details of what has happened. It is clear though that a number of our Ahmadis have been killed and many others have been injured," His Holiness Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said: "These people had merely come to the mosque to offer their Friday prayers and yet became victims of a heinous terrorist attack. May God grant patience to the bereaved and elevate the status of those who have been martyred.

"The terrorist attacks that occurred today at two of our mosques in Lahore were completely barbaric and alien to all forms of humanity," he said. "These attacks took place in mosques which are places of worship and at the time of the Friday prayers which all Muslims know is a holy and sacred time. No true Muslims could ever countenance such attacks, such cruelty and such barbaric behaviour. No form of terrorism has any place in Islam and thus those who were behind these attacks may justify their acts in its name, but let it be clear they are Muslim only in name and never in deed.”

MORE THAN 80 DEAD

Spokeperson Waseem Sayed of Ahmadiyya said Taliban extremists killed more than 80 worshipers (as of Saturday) at two Mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community during Friday prayer services. Early reports indicate several hundred hostages. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has faced intense governmental and extremist persecution in Pakistan for nearly 40 years.

Sayed said that the Tahreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is taking credit for the attacks. Terrorists attacked Bait ul Noor Mosque and Darul Zikr Mosque with automatic weapons and hand grenades while thousands of members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community were offering their Friday prayer services. Each had over 1,500 worshipers present.

Sayed said those Muslim groups responsible for the attack have broken cardinal rules within Islam, such as the Quranic directives: “And create not disorder in the earth” (7:57) and “whosoever killed a person …it shall be as if he had killed all mankind” (5:33). Islam condemns violence and the taking of innocent lives, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community rejects any claims from those who do so that they are following Islamic principles.

NO PLACE FOR VIOLENCE

Sayed said there is no place for violence of this kind in Islam, and Islam has no need for those who resort to violence in a so-called defense of their faith. “Reverence for life is a part of Islam,” said Nasim Rehmatullah, Vice President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. “The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community calls on the Pakistan government and other influential parties to dispense justice in the area.” The Ahmadiyya Muslim community sends condolences to the families of the victims of the tragedy.

Sayed said these attacks against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community are the latest in a history riddled with persecution. Since Pakistan's anti-blasphemy laws passed in 1974, more than 100 members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have been murdered for their faith. Sayed said roughly 5 million Ahmadiyya Muslims live in Pakistan without basic rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Despite these human rights violations, Ahmadiyya Muslims continually advocate and work toward peace.

Sayed said it is a matter of great shame for any civil society where evil instigators inculcate hate against Ahmadiyya Muslim community by attacking their places of worship. In the face of increasing violence in the Muslim world, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s worldwide spiritual leader, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, has exhorted members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to “follow peace in your life.” Furthermore, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, emphatically declared that an aggressive “jihad by the sword” has no place in Islam. In its place, he taught his followers to wage a peaceful, intellectual “jihad of the pen” to defend Islam. Through his teachings, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has become the leading Islamic organization to categorically reject violence and terrorism in any form.

Spokesmen at the Ahmadiyya London press office said that these attacks are the culmination of years of un-policed persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, which is a minority sect in Pakistan. In 1974 legislation was passed that declared Ahmadis to be ‘non-Muslim’ and in 1984 further legislation was passed in which the practice of the faith was outlawed.

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