USA: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community world leader to visit the West Coast

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"We consider ourselves great fortunate people and now the fifth successor is coming, and we are ready to receive his blessing." [Imam Shamshad Nasir]

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Inland valley Daily Bulletin
By Canan Tasci | May 2, 2013

CHINO -- Ahmadiyya Muslim Community members are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their world leader in Southern California on Saturday.

In his first visit to the West Coast, His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad Khalifatul Masih V will spend more than a week in California, most at the Baitul Hamid Mosque in Chino, where he will be talking to more than 600 families and conducting multiple sermons.

"It's like heaven on earth," said Dr. Nasim Rehmatullah, national vice president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA.

Founded in 1889, this Islamic organization spans over 200 countries with membership exceeding tens of millions. Its current headquarters are in the United Kingdom, according to the Ahmadiyya website.

The Ahmadiyya community is the only Islamic organization to believe the long-awaited Messiah has come in the person of 19th Century Indian-born Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the community on March 23, 1889.

"We consider ourselves great fortunate people and now the fifth successor is coming, and we are ready to receive his blessing," said Imam Shamshad Nasir, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino.

"Others are still waiting for their divine personality to appear but our divine personality is among us - it is unique and fortunate."

Ahmad is scheduled to land at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday where he will be escorted to the Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino.

Nasir said members of the community have been working day and night in preparation for Ahmad's arrival.

"I am more excited than nervous," he said. "Hundreds will be waiting for him. They are ready to sing poems in praise of God and the prophet of Islam. "

Next week, Ahmad will continue to meet with families of the Ahmadiyya community at the Chino mosque, and on May 10 will perform a 2 p.m. sermon that will be broadcasted live on MTA.TV around the world.

Finally, on May 11, the community will celebrate Ahmad's visit to the United States with a reception and luncheon at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Officials said Ahmad's message during the program - which is by invitation only - will be to promote peace, help those in poverty and condemn violence.

"Because of the extremism we see in the Muslim world, he will talk about how we can curb this by taking into account why these people get into these paths," Rehmatullah said. "He also emphasizes that the institutions of the people who cater to extremism need to be penalized and be brought to justice."

More than 250 people are expected to be at the reception, including Rep. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Montclair, Rep. Karen Bass, D-Culver City, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck and Chino Police Chief Miles Pruitt.

This will be Ahmad's third trip to the United States. He visited the East Coast in 2008 and 2012.

"Our message is always 'love for all, hatred for none,' and this is our Holiness' teachings and advice to members of the community," Nasir said.




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