USA: Ahmadi Muslims to meet in Cheswick

"Our purpose is to unite mankind as a vibrant, organized community that focuses on things like human welfare, interfaith relations and religious harmony. ... Even though we have differences in belief, we can still work together for human welfare."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Ann Rodgers | July 15, 2011

This weekend, about 1,200 youths and young adults from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA will gather in Cheswick to celebrate their faith, strengthen their moral commitments and grapple with the dual challenge of being a Muslim in America whose faith is considered heretical by most other Muslims.

Although the Ahmadis share many basic tenets of Islam, they believe that their 19th-century founder was both the second coming of Jesus and the Mahdi, a great reformer whom many Muslims expect near the end of time.

"We are Muslims who believe in the messiah," said Qasim Rashid of Richmond, Va., national spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Their understanding of Jesus differs significantly from Christian teaching and also from the most common Islamic view.


In an era of increasing questions over whether good Muslims can be good Americans, the young Ahmadis will testify that they already are.

"Islam requires a Muslim to be loyal to our homeland, and that is America. And America offers complete freedom of religion. When you look at the core message of America and of Islam, you find there is no conflict," he said.

The main gathering will be Saturday and Sunday at the Pittsburgh Indoor Sports Arena in Cheswick. The public is welcome and can contact Mr. Rashid at Qasim.rashid@ahmadiyya.us for more information.

The movement's founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was born in 1835 in India* and died in 1908. He rejected any attempt to spread Islam through violence or coercion, urging his followers to use respectful persuasion and good deeds.

The Ahmadiyya community claims believers in 190 nations, less than 20,000 of them in the United States. Ahmadis first fled to America from South Asia in the early 20th century. They incorporated in 1921.

Today the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA is about half South Asian by heritage, with a large contingent of black members and a growing number of white and Latino converts, Mr. Rashid said.

But most of the 1 billion Muslims worldwide reject the Ahmadi's claims. Persecution by militant Sunnis has been deadly in Pakistan. Relations with other American Muslims are tense or nonexistent.

But Mr. Rashid sees signs of improved relations in America.

"Our purpose is to unite mankind as a vibrant, organized community that focuses on things like human welfare, interfaith relations and religious harmony. ... Even though we have differences in belief, we can still work together for human welfare."

Mr. Rashid, 29, has attended youth gatherings since he was 10 and is still eligible for the young adult sessions. There will be competitions for memorizing the Quran and writing poetry. Break-out sessions will focus on topics such as how to resist the temptation to use alcohol and drugs.

The Ahmadi youth organization is structured to give young people leadership experience, whether that means organizing a blood drive or managing the group's finances.

Ann Rodgers: arodgers@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416.

* - The original text erroneously reads "in what is now Pakistan"

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