USA: Ahmadi Muslims spreading peace with outreach

The campaign, run by the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, aims to counter negative generalizations about Muslims that have led to such turmoil as the protests over building a mosque near Ground Zero.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Pueblo Cheiftain | AP
By Zach Patberg | AP | April 9, 2011

PATERSON, N.J. — When Muslim extremists hijacked planes to use as missiles against New York and Washington, they in effect hijacked Islam, said Kashif Chaudhry, an Englewood, N.J., doctor.

  So for the past year, almost every weekend, he and thousands of other Muslim-Americans across the country have fought to get it back — and reverse a popular belief among Westerners that their religion promotes violence. They wage this public relations war with advertisements on the sides of buses, brochures handed out on street corners and simple conversation with anyone who’ll listen.


On a recent Sunday, the Muslims for Peace movement’s North Jersey chapter was in Paterson, N.J., at the corner of Market and Main streets passing out pamphlets that read ‘‘Love for all — Hatred for none.’’

  In a month or so, they’ll likely fan out to Bergen County, perhaps Englewood, Chaudhry said.

  ‘‘I want to change the perception out there,’’ said Anwar Muhammad, one of the more than dozen volunteers, mostly from the same Clifton, N.J., mosque, standing at the Paterson intersection. ‘‘Most Muslims are not violent and proclaiming jihad.’’

  The campaign, run by the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, aims to counter negative generalizations about Muslims that have led to such turmoil as the protests over building a mosque near Ground Zero.

  Chaudhry, 28, said the timing of their effort with the recent clashes between dictators and pro-democracy protesters across the Middle East was coincidence. But the relevance is there. Just as the protesters retaliate against oppressive regimes, so has the Ahmadiyya sect endured the spurn of intolerance, Chaudhry said.

  According to the volunteers, its followers must address themselves as non-Muslims in Pakistan or face three years in jail. Saudi Arabia refuses them pilgrimage access to Mecca. Many have been killed by the Taliban for their non-traditional beliefs — namely that church and state should be separate.


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