Source/Credit: Northampton Chronicle and Echo
By Ruth Pott-Negrine | November 2, 2010
ACROSS Northampton and beyond, many communities are united by faith and their desire to bring harmony to the world.
One group you might not have heard of is the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, a small but growing organisation which recently held a conference in Northampton to promote its message of peace and further its links with other community groups and their leaders.
The burgeoning community has about 40 members in Northampton while further afield, there are Ahmadiyya Muslims in about 200 countries across the world, with a global following of 160 million.
In the UK, the Ahmadiyya community was founded in 1913 and is well known in other cities and towns, but people are less aware of it in Northampton.
Its motto is “love for all, hatred for none” – a message its community hopes to spread across Northampton.
“We want to create a very peaceful environment,” said Dr Naveed Zafar, the president of the Ahmadiyya community in Northampton. “We want to engage with people on a one-to-one basis.”
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community was established in 1889 by Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who told followers he was the Messiah and said he would lay the foundation for peace through the removal of the gap between God and humans. The Ahmadiyya have faced persecution around the world by Muslims who believe the Messiah is still to come, because of this message.
“Other groups do not accept us but we believe it’s only God who can make that decision.
“Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s message was to bring mankind back to the right path. The portrayal in the media isn’t what Islam is and we’re trying to say to people these are what the teachings are and there have been deviations from it. The Koran is all peace, love your neighbour, love God.”
Regular fundraising events are held across the country to raise money for charities such as Cancer Research UK and Great Ormond Street Hospital, and doctors in the community have been to disaster zones on self-funded excursions to provide help to those in need. A big part of Ahmadiyya funds goes to projects in Africa.
The difference between the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and other branches of Islam is that the former believe the Messiah has come. “He came to revive the religion because people had drifted away from Islam.
“We are a very peaceful community, we believe in peace, harmony and brotherhood and respecting each other’s point of view. The Holy Koran says we shouldn’t be fighting.” Some Muslims, he says, have drifted away from the book’s message and now believe in violence.
“We have a lot of tolerance, we respect the Bible and other holy scriptures.
“The message is love for all, hatred for none.”
Don’t take this the wrong way, I say, but it sounds like the hippy branch of Islam.
Dr Zafar and his wife Amber laugh. She puts her fingers into peace signs and says she understands what made me think that.
“One of the things is if you love the creator, you must love the creation,” Amber adds. “How can you love God if you don’t love everything he created? If you honour any of God’s personal creations, how can he be displeased with you?
“Just because you’re Muslim doesn’t mean you’re going to heaven.”
She explains other Muslims don’t believe in the Ahmadiyya message, which they perceive as “soft”.
Her husband explains it’s for God to decide who goes to heaven, leading to a conversation about whether non-Muslims who have lived a good life should be automatically excluded from the afterlife because they did not practise the faith.
“We have to keep trying to spread the message, it’s an ongoing effort.
“We have great respect for each other.
“Humanity comes first and, as a human being, I respect you. In the end, religion is a personal matter. At the end of the day I want to please my God. We leave everything to God. Even if we’re persecuted, everything is left to God.”
Promoting harmony:
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association is not one of the best known religious groups in Northampton.
Last month it held a peace conference to promote the message of harmony the association says is in the Koran.
The event, which also took place last year, will be annual and will add to the calendar of Ahmadiyya conferences, which includes a national meeting.
“It was about respect for other people,” says Ahmadiyya Muslim Amber Zafar. “A lot of MPs come to the national conference because they really enjoy it.
“I think we have to keep saying it so there’s not so much negativity. Two police officers came and they were really surprised when they talked to me, so they came back this year. One said ‘you opened my eyes and I want to come back’.
“We had both Northampton’s MPs come to the conference and both gave little addresses. The assistant chief constable came and so did lots of councillors and lots of neighbours. I think everybody really enjoyed it and we had positive feedback.”
There were also representatives of other faiths who sent messages of peace to the conference, which focused on the Koran and the meaning and message of it for Muslims and other religions, in the hope of creating a better understanding of the religion.
The town’s Ahmadiyya community also wants to tackle the preconceptions and negative views which exist towards Islam, of the radicals and violence which dogs the press.
Charity work is very important to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and there is a focus on Africa, where money has been used to build 500 schools and 100 hospitals.
“We support a lot of charities if they do good for the community,” said community president Dr Naveed Zafar.
“We are always there for good causes. I feel it’s our duty to try to at least talk, as human beings and members of society. We are patriotic citizens and charity work is a chance to do something for the community.”
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