USA: Va. mosque vandalism draws sympathy for long-persecuted Muslim sect

Pam Broaddus, a member of New Life Methodist Church in Herndon, said the two groups developed a “very positive relationship” when the church was next door to an Ahmadi worship center. “They always let us park in their yard.”

Photo: The Washington Post

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Washington Post
By Pamela Constable | February 20, 2012

In late January, workmen in Chantilly erected a minaret on the roof of a new building, the first highly visible sign that it was to be a mosque. That night, vandals hurled rocks at its arched windows, shattering many. Empty beer cans and liquor bottles were scattered on the mosque’s grounds and roof.

The attackers left no written message, and police have not found them. But if their intent was to ostracize or frighten the worshippers, mostly of Pakistani origin, it didn’t work. Religious and political leaders across the region quickly issued statements of condemnation. A week later, at a regional interfaith meeting in Sterling, officials from a variety of congregations expressed their outrage and sympathy.

“We were a little surprised, because this is a conservative area. But the attack seems to have brought the community together in a positive way,” said Shahid Malik, an engineer and official of the mosque. “I think civic leaders here have gotten to know us. They see that we are helpful and hard-working and that we condemn terrorism. What happened was unfortunate, but it had a silver lining.”

To members of the mosque, the incident was an alarming echo of the persecution their sect, known as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, has faced for years in Pakistan. It also came at a time when some political and religious figures in the United States warn that the proliferation of Muslim immigrants and mosques represents a danger to American society.

In contrast, local groups took pains to reassure the Chantilly mosque members that they are a welcome part of the region’s rapid diversification. Once mostly white, the Dulles region is now a mosaic of international cultures and faiths, from Indian Sikhs to Vietnamese Buddhists.

Pam Broaddus, a member of New Life Methodist Church in Herndon, said the two groups developed a “very positive relationship” when the church was next door to an Ahmadi worship center. “They always let us park in their yard.”

Broaddus said that with change coming so fast to the area, “some neighbors may not have been happy that a mosque was going up, but everyone I know felt awful about what happened.”

Within the region’s Muslim community, condemning the vandalism held a different but equal significance. To most Americans, Ahmadis are indistinguishable from other Muslims, whether women shopping while wearing head scarves or men gathering to pray. But many foreign-born Muslims, especially Sunnis, believe Ahmadis are dangerous infidels because they believe in a modern-day messiah and do not accept Muhammad as the final prophet.

The Ahmadiyya movement was founded in the 1890s in Punjab, India — now part of Pakistan — by a spiritual leader named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Its followers obey the main tenets of Islam and revere the prophet Muhammad, but they also believe Ahmad was the messiah, a doctrine that many other Muslims see as blasphemy. The Ahmadis’ principal slogan is “love for all, hatred for none.”

In Pakistan, radical Sunni groups have repeatedly threatened Ahmadis, and the government has refused to acknowledge them as Muslims, thus opening the door to public hatred. In recent years, Ahmadi leaders have been harassed and killed. In 2010, nearly 100 people died when terrorists attacked two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore.

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