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| File photo: Ahmadiyya Quran Exhibition held in India |
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times / Various
By Imran Jattala | January 31, 2012
The Holy Quran exhibition by the Spen Valley branch of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association (AMA) concluded successfully at Dewsbury Town Hall with opponents passing out leaflets renouncing AMA's right to organize such an exhibition.
"A row has broken out over an exhibition about the Muslim holy book, the Qur’an," a newspaper had reported on Monday.
According to Dewsbury Reporter’s piece entitled "Muslim group hits out at Qur’an exhibition organizers", an anti-Ahmadiyya Muslim faction has accused the organizers of “hijacking the Muslim identity.”
The event, organized by the Ahmadi Muslim community, was held at Dewsbury Town Hall on Tuesday.
But members of Kirklees Muslim Action Committee, according to Dewsbury Reporter, said the Ahmadiyya community had no right to organize an exhibition about the Holy Qur’an, accusing they were not Muslims.
Further, according to Dewsbury Reporter, Dr Abid Hussain of Kirklees Muslim Action Committee said they "object strongly to the fact that a small minority are telling people about the Holy Qur’an when they are not even Muslims.”
The members of the Ahmadiyya community say they consider themselves to be Muslims and have every right to organize the exhibition.
Arif Ahmad, vice president of the Spen Valley branch of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in north Kirklees area said, according to Dewsbury Reporter, “There are doctrinal differences between different groups but we believe ourselves to be Muslims."
“We believe the Holy Qur’an is our holy book and we hope to show it to the public,” Arif Ahmad was further quoted as saying.
The Ahmadi Muslims originally planned the Holy Quran exhibition in December, but postponed it on the account of threats of possible violence and police advice, it was reported at the time.
“There were actually threats and information that there might be problems with other Muslim groups,” Mr Ahmad told Dewsbury Reporter.
The Huddersfield branch of the Ahmadiyya group had an exhibition at Huddersfield Town Hall last Saturday, where protesters from the Muslim Action Committee were present, but peaceful, it was reported.
Despite the reports of several threats made in December by some extremist factions, Dr Hussain this time claimed to Dewsbury Reporter that "his group’s members would have been equally peaceful at the Dewsbury event that was postponed in December."
According to a police spokesman, officers worked with the council, the Kirklees Imams Advisory Board and local people to police the event.
The report by Dewsbury Reporter contained some inaccuracies, it was expressed by several readers who pronounce to be Ahmadiyya Muslims.
The statement, "In 1974 members of the Ahmadiyya sect were declared to be non-Muslims by the World Muslim League," asserted in Dewsbury Reporter is inaccurate, Ahmadiyya Times was informed.
Dr Basharat Nazir, national spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya community in the UK took issue from several angels with the Dewsbury Reporter assertions.
"What exactly did the ‘World Muslim League’ do?" Dr Nazir asked pointedly underlining the fact that there is no such body of any international repute or standing known as "the World Muslim League" that declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974.
However, there has always been, says Dr Nazir, "some kind of loose recommendation" by various Muslim factions asking for a “resolution declaring us non-Muslims.”
But, that would hardly account for a global action by some fictitious 'World Muslim League," Dr Nazir says.
Dewsbury Reporter further stated erroneously that Ahmadis “are not recognized as Muslims in several countries’ constitutions.”
Dr Nazir again takes issue with the inaccuracy of the statement.
For the record, reminds Dr Nazir, it was only one country, Pakistan, which through an amendment to its constitution declared Ahmadis 'non-Muslim for the purposes of the law.'
“How could one country, Pakistan [or its constitution], mathematically add up to ‘several countries’ constitutions,’ as the Dewsbury Reporter has asserted,” Dr Nazir asked.
There was no shortage of readers taking offense to the Kirklees Muslim Action Committee’s effort to stop Ahmadis from organizing the Holy Qur'ān exhibition.
“I think that the comments from the Kirklees Imams makes all Muslims look intolerant and backwards,” wrote Bilal, an Ahmadiyya Times reader. “If someone wants to promote the beautiful Qur'an, then we should be happy and help them.”
Bilal says so long as people are not insulting the Holy Quran, “we should be happy someone wants to promote the Qur'an.”
“As a Muslim, it gives me great pleasure to see the Qur'an glorified and it does not bother me who it is who is glorifying it,” Bilal wrote.
There were many who commented about the drama created by the extremists trying to stop the Ahmadī Qur'ān exhibition.
“Only a bigoted person who hates Quran and Islam will oppose an exhibition that is glorifying Qur'ān,” someone commented at Ahmadiyya Times’ website.
“The reporter's information is obviously erroneous and proves lack of editorial oversight,” one reader opined about the inaccurate facts reporting by Dewsbury Reporter.
-- Portions edited and adopted from Dewsbury Reporter.
Read original Dewsbury Reporter post here: Muslim group hits out at Qur’an exhibition organisers
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