Source/Credit: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
By Imam Shamshad A Nasir | March 27, 2011
I am very thankful to reader / responder Mr. James G. McAlpin for his article entitled “To each his own” whereby he cited some articles written by me and another member of my congregation, Mr. Ghaffar. His statement in his final paragraph of the article: “This group loves the rest of us so much they kill us if we don’t convert to Islam. I would rather be loved less and allowed to live and practice my own religion” was unfortunately due to a misunderstanding which I hereby clarify.
The statement made by our Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was that “mainstream” Muslims believe that Jesus would descend to earth near the Minaret of Damascus, killing all infidels.
If Mr. McAlpin revisits the article from where he extracted the notion that we believe in a cruel Messiah, and carefully read it once more, he would realize that our message is that Ahmadi Muslims do not believe as other Muslims in a “bloody” Messiah, who would descend from the Heavens, chopping heads off the infidels. Instead we believe that he has taught us to follow pristine Islam which espouses “Love for all; hatred for none” -- the motto of our Community.
We believe in the peaceful Messiah, Mirza Ghulam of Qadian (1835-1908), who was born east of Damascus in the village of Qadian, India and who claimed to be the Messiah referred to in the Holy Quran and Traditions fulfilling the prophecy of the return of Christ, in spirit.
My many articles in various newspapers and my radio shows (KCAA 1050 AM on Tuesdays at 9:30 in the morning and KSPA 1510AM or KFDS 1450 AM on Saturdays at 10:30 in the mornings) reiterate our beliefs that we are a peaceful group who practices our faith with consideration and tolerance for all religions. Therefore we declare that:
(1) We believe in the peaceful and not the bloody Messiah.
(2) Because of this particular belief, mainly, we are not considered Muslims by mainstream Muslims.
(3) Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah who wrote more than 80 books, rejected the belief that someone will come from heaven and kill all infidels. This is not the style of a God-sent person.
We are not comprised of nor partake in any hate campaigns (like the campaign to get rid of Ahmadi Muslims in Indonesia by killing them as was reported by Mr. Ghaffar in the article to which you referred). Our members are continually killed or maimed and forced to denounce their beliefs, often at gun point by extremist sects, mainly in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan (among several other countries where Ahmadi Muslims are persecuted mercilessly). We believe in Jihad of the pen and not the sword.
Our current spiritual Head Mirza Masroor Ahmad continues to exhort peaceful teachings so mush so that when on May 28th 2010, eighty six of our members were mercilessly slaughtered and over 100 injured in Lahore Pakistan by extremist Muslims, he wisely asked the members to remain resolute and occupy themselves in prayers and worship, rather than taking revenge of any sort, for the carnage which befell our members.
I would like to commend Mr McAlpine for at least reading our published articles and encourage and invite him to visit our Mosque and have a face to face dialogue with me, in effort to clear up any doubts about who we are. We are well known by all public officials in and around Inland Empire and even in Congress where, recently, 28 Congressmen have signed a petition to the Indonesian Government, that they must desist from attacking the Ahmadi Muslims and to let them worship peacefully, which in fact, is our God given rights.
Read original post here: We Reject the Bloody Messiah.
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