Germany: Faith and practice | "We want to be accepted"

In Pakistan , the original home to Fayza Malik, Suleiman and their family, the Ahmadiyya community was outlawed in the early 70s by an amendment to the constitution which went so far as to even define what is a "non-Muslim" and explained what is a "disbelief”.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | EU Desk
Source/Credit: Thueringer-Allgemeine
By Hanno Müller | October 10, 2011

The following is adopted from a piece appearing in Thueringer-Allgemeine and losely translated via Google translate.

Suleiman Malik and his sister Fayza belong to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community.

In order to live here and freely exercise their faith, they are hoping to establish a mosque in Thuringia, a free state of Germany.

A tall building stand in the north of Erfurt, the capital city of Thuringia and it is one of the typical 11-storey structure from the GDR era, where the elevator stops every three floors only.

You can get lost easily in the maze of staircases, say Malik Suleiman, who comes to greet the visitor.


His sister Fayza Malik wears a head scarf and with a friendly smile the young woman asks you to understand that women do not shake hand with men.

For a Muslim woman that is uncommon, she explained.

Fayza (22) and Malik Sulaiman (27) belong to the community of faith known as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat.

Its founder, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835 - 1908) wanted to remove impurities that had entered the faith of Islām over the course of centuries and his followers revere him as the “Promised Messiah” already mentioned in the Holy Qoran.

“Ahmad has enacted no new laws, but only revived the true teaching of Islam," says Malik Suleiman.

But the clerics of most other Islamic sects look at it differently.

For them, Prophet Muhammad alone is the Messenger of God. The acceptance by the Ahmadis that there is another prophet promised besides Prophet Muhammad - and Ahmad, the Ahmadiyya founder, was that expected Promised Messiah in the Koran - is regarded by other Muslims as blasphemous, and sometimes very violently contested.

Malik Family of Erfurt seen carrying on with religious religious
education at their home.

In Pakistan , the original home to Fayza Malik, Suleiman and their family, the Ahmadiyya community was outlawed in the early 70s by an amendment to the constitution which went so far as to even define what is a "non-Muslim" and explained what is a "disbelief”. For Ahmadis, there is a prohibition on the use of Muslim symbols under the penalty of law.

"Almost every day there are attacks on Ahmadis," reports Malik Suleiman.

Since Muslim extremists killed 86 people in massacres in two Ahmadiyya mosques in Lahore in 2010, many Ahmadiyya sought safety in exile. Like many other families Maliks also received political asylum in Germany. The father fled from Pakistan years ago and the family came later. Fayza and Suleiman's youngest brother, who was born in Erfurt, is currently in the third grade.

Currently, the Thuringian Ahmadiyya community is mainly composed of the members of the Malik family, a young German from Hall and a senior Pakistani asylum seekers from Apolda.

There are about 15 community members who meet regularly for Friday prayers in Erfurt where they established a small mosque in an apartment in the north of Erfurt. During the prayers attendees are separated according to Islamic dictates, the men take the living room, and the women offer prayers the family room.

"This is not oppression of women but is intended to protect them during prayers," the 22-year-old Fayza assures with a smile.

Islamic prayer involves physical movement and nothing should distract the faithful from concentration during the prayers.

Like other Muslims, the Ahmadiyya Muslims also pray five times a day.

About 30 Ahmadiyya mosques have been established in Germany and the Thuringian Ahmadis would like to have their own prayer center. The community recently took their concerns to the Mayor of the City.

“We are still waiting to establish a mosque In the Erfurt,” says Suleiman Malik. “However we never felt that we were not being accepted as Ahmadiyya Muslims.”

But how hard can the path be to their own mosque considering the example of Berlin-Pankow where the construction of an Ahmadiyya mosque in 2008 was accompanied by violent protests.

 Ultimately, it is about correcting false image of Islām, the siblings say.

"We Ahmadis represent a tolerant and open Islam and want ourselves to be fully integrated here in Germany,” assures Malik Suleiman, who works at one of service companies in Erfurt and hopes to take a tour of the sate at some point in future.

His sister graduated from the University of Erfurt in religious studies and holds many lectures and the siblings are involved in a local Muslims Forum.

"Much of what they accuse Islam of, Islam never preached in the first place," said Fayza Malik .

Extremists and terrorists only help add to the bad image of Islam with their bloody deeds again and again.

"But, we Ahmadiyya will tell you only one thing, we do not let ourselves get discouraged," Maliks say.

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