The first Ahmadiyya arrived in Australia about 100 years ago, but the sect has only become "more functional and administrative" in the past 35 years.
Source/Credit: Frankston Time / Mornington News
By Keith Platt | September 29, 2014
The spiritual leader of a mosque in Langwarrin has warned his congregation to not to overreact to any anti-Islamic intimidation.
Imam Syed Wadood Janud said he wanted to raise “general awareness (for them) to be careful and proceed with caution.”
His message followed a phone call from police at Carrum Downs advising mosque administrators to “be alert to any possible backlash” over the shooting of a young Muslim man outside the Endeavour Hills police station.
Police allege Numan Haider was shot dead last Tuesday night after stabbing two police officers who had arranged to meet him outside the police station.
Imam Janud, of the Ahmadiyya Centre Melbourne, said police wanted members of his congregation to be alert to any threats or intimidation against them.
Coincidently, at about the same time that the shooting and stabbing occurred at Endeavour Hills, the mosque’s press and media coordinator Aziz Bhatti was threatened while waiting at traffic lights in Frankston.
Mr Bhatti said a carload of youths pulled up alongside his vehicle at the corner of Davey St and Nepean Highway and then tried to ram him after he turned into the highway.
"They tried to hit my car and started yelling at me," he said, "I picked up my phone as if calling the police and they sped off.
"I have a beard and I believe it might have provoked them. This has never happened to me before."
Mr Bhatti, 32, and other family members fled Pakistan five years ago after his father was kidnapped and killed.
They belong to the minority Ahmadiyya sect which faces widespread persecution within the Muslim world.
Mr Bhatti is one of many thousands of Ahmadiyyans to leave Pakistan since its government declared their sect non-Muslim.
Imam Janud, who grew up in Adelaide after arriving there with his family when he was four, said members of the Ahmadiyya sect believe in peace and harmony and respect for the laws of the country where they live.
The first Ahmadiyya arrived in Australia about 100 years ago, but the sect has only become "more functional and administrative" in the past 35 years.
There are about 5000 Ahmadiyyans in Australia, 1000 in Victoria.
The Langwarrin canter (formally known as Bait-ul-Salam or House of Peace), is the sect's headquarters.
Imam Janud said the sect's concentration on "building bridges" and living in peace and harmony with the Australian community conformed with true Islamic faith.
He condemned the atrocities of the Islamic State in the Middle East, saying they did not reflect Muslim beliefs and teachings.
"They are as far away from Islam as a person can be," Imam Janud said.
He said Islam was being "hijacked by a small minority".
IS's clever use of social media and the internet, while shocking Westerners, was successfully recruiting young Muslims to join its fight against established governments in the Middle East.
"The vast majority of Muslims would condemn and stand against these actions, he said.
"These people have gone beyond humanity. They look like human beings but their psychological state is beyond repair. It's anything but Islam."
Imam Janud said the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Victoria was in favour of anything the federal government did to counter "home-grown terrorism".
Mr Bhatti said the sect was a religious community with no political ambitions or agenda. Its members support the government "in every field of life" of whichever country they were in.
Al Islam, the "official" website of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, describes the community as "the leading Islamic organization to categorically reject terrorism in any form" with its then leader, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, more than a century ago declaring "that an aggressive 'jihad by the sword' has no place in Islam".
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community's international headquarters are in the United Kingdom and, according to the website; it has built more than 15,000 mosques, more than 500 schools, and more than 30 hospitals and translated the Quran into more than 70 languages.
Read original post here: Australia: Police and imam call for calm
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