Faith and Country: Messages of hope from an isolated Muslim sect in Leicester

A banner hangs across the wall behind us. "There is none worthy of worship except Allah," it reads. "Mohammed is the messenger of Allah."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff |
Source & Credit: This is Leicestershire
By Leicester Mercury| June 28, 2010

The Ahmadi community in Leicester say they are Muslim. Other Muslims say they are fakes... or worse. Multi-faith, multi-racial life in Leicester is more complicated than you think, as Adam Wakelin discovers

THERE'S a cosy view of life in Leicester that we all rub along quite nicely. Maybe that's true most of the time. But it's an ideal that raises rueful smiles inside the Ahmadiyya Community Centre, a deceptively large building that's easy to miss as you pass the rows of terraced houses en route to the posher parts of Clarendon Park, Leicester.

Perhaps its anonymity is no bad thing.

"When we didn't have our own prayer hall we used to hire community premises," says Ather Mirza, general secretary of the of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association in Leicester.


"There was always pressure about where we could go before. People would stand outside to harangue us and shout obscenities."

Ather is here with the association's president Habib Akram and its regional missionary Ghulam Ahmad Khadim to talk about tolerance, respect and what it's like to sometimes feel like outsiders in your own city.


A banner hangs across the wall behind us. "There is none worthy of worship except Allah," it reads. "Mohammed is the messenger of Allah."

It's that bold declaration of the Islamic faith which stirs up trouble for this Leicester community of 50-or-so families.

There are those who believe that the banner is an abomination, that it has no place here.

And it's not who you might suspect. The people who think that are Muslims.

Ahmadis, who established London's first mosque in 1924, are one of 73 different sects who affiliate themselves to Islam.

The community say they embrace all the key tenets of the Muslim faith. There is one theological difference, though. A big one.

They believe the Second Coming has already happened, while other Muslims believe it has yet to occur.

The Ahmadis believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a Punjabi doctor's son born in 1835, is the promised redeemer who will save the world from sin. That belief sets them apart from most Muslims.

For a long time it was an argument within the family, a bit like voting Labour when your brother was a Tory. However much you disagreed over the dinner table you still sat down together.

Grudging acceptance became a bitter schism when the Pakistan government, alarmed by a sect that now has 160 million followers world-wide, passed a law in 1974 that effectively state-sponsored discrimination against the Ahmadiyya community.

Under Pakistani law, Ahmadis may not call themselves Muslims and cannot call their places of worship mosques.

Muslims applying for a passport in Pakistan must sign a statement deriding Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as an "imposter". Any Ahmadi who defies these edicts can be sentenced to death.

If a Muslim is "offended" in any way by an Ahmadi then they can face three years in prison.

"Everybody used to be friends before," says the missionary. "Before all this got political."

Last month, 94 Ahmadis were massacred by Muslim extremists in the Pakistan city of Lahore.

Everyone who comes to this Leicester community centre knows a family who has lost a loved one in the troubles.

When Muslims on the flotilla trying to enter Gaza were killed by Israeli troops, there were expressions of sorrow and condemnation from Leicester's mosques and the city's Council of Faiths.

No such sympathies were extended for the victims in Lahore.

"People e-mailed me privately to say how sorry they were, but there was not a single public denunciation," says Ather. "It is very difficult to say that publicly in the current climate."

Ather, many years ago now, worked as a Leicester Mercury journalist. He'd only been in the job a couple of weeks when a delegation of Muslims asked for him to be sacked.

Our then editor politely showed them the door.

That kind of prejudice hasn't gone away. It's still here, more bellicose and belligerent than ever if you tune into to certain religious channels on Sky.

Push the wrong buttons and priests can be seen preaching against Ahmadis every night of the week.

The community has complained to the television regulator Ofcom. They've been told that nothing that can be done, as the broadcasts come from outside the UK.

The Leicester Federation of Muslim Organisations refuses to accept the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association as a member. The Ahmadis claim they have also been cold-shouldered by the Leicester Council of Faiths, our supposed big tent of religious tolerance.

Manjula Sood, the council's chair, has a different interpretation of the situation.

Four major faiths are represented on the council, she says, and four minor ones. Lots of Christian denominations don't have a seat around the table, Manjula points out. There isn't room under the council's constitution.

Perhaps it is time to open the door to more religious groups, she suggests.

A revealing insight is provided by Suleman Nagdi, a spokesman for the Leicestershire Federation of Muslim Organisations.

The Ahmadiyya sect is akin to Jehovah's Witnesses in Christianity, he says.

Many Muslims are upset by the fact that the Ahmadis call themselves Muslims. They resent it, says Suleman.

Lots of Muslims – not necessarily him, he stresses – believe that the Ahmadiyya faith was concocted by British colonialists in India to divide and rule Muslims.

Suleman, to his credit, is not slow to condemn violence or discrimination against the Ahmadis. "We need to be tolerant of everybody," he says.

As an outsider looking in there's a sad irony in all of this.

Ahmadi "Muslims" are moderate, forward-thinking and peace-loving.

The wider Muslim community – so often under misunderstood themselves – needs them on its side.

The Ahmadis refuse to take any money from the state, they raised £90,000 for British charities from a sponsored walk a few weekends ago, and they insist that any Muslim's first loyalty is to the country where they live.

At the moment they are pushing leaflets through the doors of Leicester homes to dispel myths about what is to be a Muslim.

"Love for all, hatred for none" is the motto of that campaign.

In some ways, perhaps, the Ahmadi community's reasonableness and avowedly peaceful beliefs does them no favours.

Ghulam served the mob with drinks of water when they smashed his mosque to the ground in Pakistan.

"If we burned books or effigies, people would take more notice of our situation," says Ather. "That is not our way.

"Our key message is that we want to build bridges and live within our differences.

"This is not just about us. I think everyone in Leicester needs to be vigilant against the mind-set that excludes other people or considers them disposable."

Visit the websites below to find out more about the Ahmadiyya community.

www.ahmadiyya.org.uk

www.loveforall hatredfornone.org



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