Shiya, Sunni or Ahmaiyya: will the true Muslim please stand up?

How easy is it to create a new religion? It’s a free world and anyone with any kind of belief can form a religion of his own. How that shapes up will decide where that religion goes. That’s how Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Sikhism — to count just five out of thousands of religions present today — were born.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Hindustan Times
By Hundustan Times | February 10, 2011

If Indonesia’s deputy house speaker Priyo Budi Santoso words are to be taken to their logical conclusion, we might have another religion in the offing. According to him, if the followers of Ahmad — also known as Ahmadiyyas — cannot “repent, recognise their mistake and come back to mainstream Islam,” then they should “leave Islam and declare a new religion.”

So, what’s the difference between Muslims and Ahmadiyya Muslims? “Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the only Islamic organisation to believe that the long-awaited Messiah has come in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) of Qadian,” the official website of the community states. “Ahmad claimed to be the metaphorical second coming of Jesus of Nazareth and the divine guide, whose advent was foretold by the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes that God sent Ahmad, like Jesus, to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed and reinstitute morality, justice and peace.”


The sub-group of Islam is reformist and more inclusive in its approach. “Ahmad’s advent has brought about an unprecedented era of Islamic revival. He divested Islam of fanatical beliefs and practices by vigorously championing Islam’s true and essential teachings. He also recognised the noble teachings of the great religious founders and saints, including Zoroaster, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu and Guru Nanak, and explained how such teachings converged into the one true Islam.”

They have been persecuted in Islamic countries, from Pakistan to Indonesia, where the current suggestion has taken root. “The murder of three Ahmadiyah followers in Banten on Sunday is a concrete example of state-sponsored terrorism against the country’s own citizens,” a February 8 editorial in the Jakarta Post said. With the full — very sorry to say — backing of the state, bloody oppression and even the butchering of Indonesians will continue to haunt us. This street-side persecution of those with different views, faiths or backgrounds than the majority by those with swords in their hands will continue and even spread to other parts of society, and may do so without reason or pretext.”

How easy is it to create a new religion? It’s a free world and anyone with any kind of belief can form a religion of his own. How that shapes up will decide where that religion goes. That’s how Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Sikhism — to count just five out of thousands of religions present today — were born.

The question is: what do you do if within the same religion, you have a different interpretation? Who are true Christians — Catholics or Protestants? Who are true Jains — Digambars or Shwetambars? Who are true Buddhists — Mahayanas or Vajrayanas? Who are true Hindus — Shaivites or Vaishnavites? Each set of adherents will interpret his religion in his own way and that is the flexibility that religion has evolved towards.

So, who are true Muslims — Shiyas, Sunnis or Ahmaiyyas? Whoever it be, there is no reason to change or modify religious beliefs simply because a stronger set of adherents thinks so. If Islam can’t tolerate its own extension or offer flexibility of expression within the confines of the same religion, how will it move towards harmonisation of the world’s other 4,200 religions?

Indonesia needs to reject Santoso’s stance.


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