The event is expected to draw about 10,000 Ahmadiyya Muslims from North America and abroad, and about 1,000 non-Muslims.
 |
| File photo: 2012 Annaul Convention - Harrisburg, PA |
Source/Credit: Lancaster Online
By Jon Rutter | Jun 29, 2013
Thousands of Ahmadiyya Muslims gather at national convention in Harrisburg
It's a long road from India's peace-preaching 1800s villager, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, to 9/11.
Reformist Ahmadiyya Muslim followers, gathering in Harrisburg this weekend for the fourth year in a row, say they want to get back to the tolerant roots of their religion.
"The word Islam means peace," said Dr. Mubashir Mumtaz, a Harrisburg heart surgeon publicizing the annual Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA meeting. "Islam does not teach the destruction of community or society."
The conference has been held for 65 years.
This year's edition, which started Friday and ends Sunday at the Farm Show Complex & Expo Center, 2300 N. Cameron St., will feature ethnic food, prayer and talks about "Finding God in Youth," "Avoiding the Drug Culture" and "Muhammad, Messenger of Peace," among other topics.
The event is expected to draw about 10,000 Ahmadiyya Muslims from North America and abroad, and about 1,000 non-Muslims.
A visitor period is scheduled from 3:30-6:30 p.m. today, but Mumtaz said the public may come in any time.
Guests are asked to register by calling 800-949-4752 or emailing convention@muslimsforpeace.org.
All are welcome and accepted as equals, said Mumtaz, echoing the thinking of the "promised messiah," Ahmad, who lived from 1835 to 1908.
Mumtaz said Ahmad, in turn, reflected the 1,400-year-old-plus teachings of Islam's seminal prophet, Muhammad.
Among them: tolerance and respect for all lives and religions and "spiritual equality" for women.
"We take it for granted today in Western countries," said Mumtaz, a native Pakistani and 1994 emigré to the United States.
"It was so refreshing and so relieving to come to the United States," added Mumtaz, who said members of his group in Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh are persecuted for their beliefs, and sometimes murdered, by extremist Muslims.
"Our community is at the forefront of combating extremism in the name of Islam," Mumtaz said, but all jihad, or struggle, must be "the jihad of the pen."
And good works.
Mumtaz said his group's blood drive collects thousands of bags of blood a year in memory of the September 11 terror victims.
The aid organization it created, Humanity First, responds to natural disasters, most recently the Oklahoma tornadoes.
Orthodox Muslims consider Ahmad heretical because he declared himself a prophet.
But the Islamic sect he founded in 1889 has grown to "tens of millions" of members in more than 200 countries, according the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA.
The group was established in the United States in 1920.
Mumtaz said the southcentral Pennsylvania chapter has nearly 300 members, including two Lancaster County families.
Naveed Rahman, 17, of Manheim, said his grandparents converted just before World War II.
"I've gone [to the conference] almost every year for 10 years," said Rahman, a recent Manheim Central High School graduate and president's award recipient.
The peace component of his faith especially inspires him, added Rahman, who is inviting a non-Muslim family to Harrisburg this year.
"The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the leading Muslim organization to categorically reject terrorism in any form."
Read original post here: Sect seeks tolerance, peace in roots of Islam
This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Ahmadiyya Times.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.