Many Ahmadiyya Muslim Community members come from Pakistan, where the government declared Ahmadis non-Muslim, and has for decades violently suppressed them.
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| Photo: Juliet Linderman / NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune |
Source/Credit: NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
By Juliet Linderman | November 16, 2013
One of the oldest chapters of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the country on Saturday celebrated the grand opening of its brand new Kenner community center, in a celebration studded with some of the most influential political leaders in the New Orleans metro area and the state.
After Hurricane Isaac ravaged the Muslim sect’s Kenner campus, the group turned its attention to a former office building on 38th Street, which will now serve as the community’s cultural, social and religious nucleus.
To help celebrate, U.S. Sen. David Vitter delivered a keynote speech in which he praised the Ahmadi community, whose motto – boldly displayed at the entrance of the new community center – is “love for all, hatred for none.”
“This community center personifies so many important things about all of us and our shared American experience,” Vitter, R-La., said. “It personifies one of the many things that makes America great, being a nation of immigrants, a nation of folks coming from around the globe and uniting in peace around common principals of freedom, particularly religious freedom.
“Obviously with all the conflicts in the world, including the conflicts involving violent Islamic extremism, your community’s message is more important now than ever before,” Vitter continued. “I’m here to thank you and encourage you in that practice and that articulation of that vision of peace and religious tolerance.”
Ahmadiyya is an Islamic revivalist movement founded in 1889, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community its oldest and largest organization, whose membership includes tens of millions of people and spans 200 countries. There are 74 chapters in the United States; the New Orleans chapter, which includes Ahmadis from Alabama and Mississippi, was formed in 1924. They built their first community center in 1970, but opted to demolish it after Hurricane Isaac caused massive damage. They’ve spent the past year building out the new campus, which features spaces for prayer, conference rooms, several lounges and a library. The center is open 24 hours, and welcomes people of all cultural and religious backgrounds.
The New Orleans chapter president, Mobashir Ahmed, said the Ahmadi community is growing.
“Every year, the community gets bigger and bigger, in Kenner and across Louisiana,” Ahmed said. “Our membership now is roughly 100 families, about 250 people.”
The chapter’s vice-president, Mobashir Solangi, said the community center is a place that provides a safe, positive and supportive cultural and religious space for Ahmadis across the Gulf South, many of whom settled here after fleeing persecution in their countries of origin. Many Ahmadiyya Muslim Community members come from Pakistan, where the government declared Ahmadis non-Muslim, and has for decades violently suppressed them.
“We have a growing community,” Solangi said. “We believe in America, we are loyal to our country and we want our children to grow up feeling like this is their homeland. A lot of us come as immigrants, and [the community center] is a place to keep our identity, keep our children in line with our culture, our values and our community.”
Indeed, for 28-year-old Kenner native Sadiha Ahmed, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center has helped her understand her own identity. Born in the United States, Ahmed’s parents immigrated from Pakistan 35 years ago.
“It’s interesting being a first-generation American. We struggle with our identities. We are not looked at as Americans by Americans, and we are not looked at as Pakistanis by Pakistanis,” Ahmed said. “But having a support system – elders to help us maintain our traditions and younger people who understand these struggles – that’s why it’s so important to have a Muslim community. Being here, we have religious freedom, and we have a community center to call our own.”
Among the notable speakers at Saturday’s dedication ceremony were former Lt. Gov. James Fitzmorris, and Kenner Mayor Michael Yenni and Jefferson Parish President John Young, both of whom issued proclamations commemorating the new community center. U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite, and his predecessor Jim Letten, were also in attendance, as well as FBI Special Agent in Charge Mike Anderson.
Read original post here: USA: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community celebrates its new cultural outpost in Kenner
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