Ahmadiyya representatives from Brampton have been coming to Norfolk for the past several years. Saturday’s open house was held at the Port Dover branch of the Norfolk Public Library on Greenock Street West.
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| File photo: Imam Zahid Abid seen here speaking in Saskatoon |
Source/Credit: Simcoe Reformer / Delhi News-Record
By Monte Sonnenberg | February 6, 2017
There are more than 30,000 Ahmadiyya Muslims in Canada.
PORT DOVER - Canadian Muslims were grateful they were living on this side of the border as Donald Trump blustered his way into the presidency.
Trump and his supporters have taken terrorist acts to heart and are anxious to fortify America’s borders until they figure out “what the hell is going on.”
Muslims in Canada take comfort in the fact that the government in Ottawa preaches a message of inclusion and multiculturalism.
The Trudeau government has also shown itself sensitive to those suffering in predominantly Muslim countries. In 2016, the Canadian government admitted 25,000 refugees from Syria as an emergency response to a humanitarian crisis.
But then something unexpected happened. A man stormed into a mosque in Quebec City Jan. 29 and opened fire on a room full of men engaged in prayer. Six died while 19 were injured. The suspect is of Quebecois descent. That incident has a lot of Canadian Muslims looking over their shoulders.
“There was a feeling of shock that this would happen in Canada,” Imam Zahid Abid, leader of an Ahmadiyya Jama’at congregation in Brampton, said last weekend in Port Dover.
“This is the kind of thing we’re running away from. We want to live peacefully. The last few days have made us more vigilant and more careful. We have told our people this is a one-off thing.
“Meanwhile, we are reaching out to Canadians to tell them what Islam is really all about. But yes, some Muslims are scared. We appreciate the support we have received from all Canadians in recent days.”
Ahmadiyya Muslims have engaged in community outreach since the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City and Pennsylvania 16 years ago. The attacks killed near 3,000 people and signalled a new era of hostility between the West and certain factions of Islam.
Ahmadiyya Muslims worry about this development because pacifism is at the core of their interpretation of Islam. There are many different strains of Islam just as there are different denominations of Christianity. Ahmadiyyans want Canadians to know they wish to live in harmony with their neighbours.
“I was disappointed,” aspiring lawyer Farukh Bhatti, a youth leader of the Ahmadiyya community in Brampton, said of the Jan. 29 massacre. “I was born in this country. I love Canada. There is no country I would rather live in.
“We are a tolerant people and this goes against everything we are taught as Canadians. Will we paint all Canadians with the same brush? No. That would be wrong too. The way we have united over this speaks volumes about who we are as Canadians.”
Ahmadiyya representatives from Brampton have been coming to Norfolk for the past several years. Saturday’s open house was held at the Port Dover branch of the Norfolk Public Library on Greenock Street West.
There are more than 30,000 Ahmadiyya Muslims in Canada. Many are here because the sect is routinely persecuted overseas in predominantly Muslim countries.
Ahmadiyyans hold a number of beliefs other Muslims do not accept. Unlike other sects, Ahmadiyyans believe new Muslim prophets -- albeit not law-giving ones such as the faith’s founder Mohammed – are possible.
Christians and many Muslims also believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and his eventual return.
Ahmadiyyans believe Jesus was a good man but don’t believe he died on the cross. Instead, they believe he survived the crucifixion and continued on with his ministry in India. Ahmadiyyans believe Jesus died in Kashmir province and is buried there. They do not subscribe to the idea of a Second Coming.
Ahmadiyyans also do not believe in the idea of “jihad” as a violent struggle against non-believers. Rather, they interpret the call to jihad as one involving the control and mastery of sinful impulses.
MSonnenberg@postmedia.com
Read original post here: Canada: Muslim outreach in Norfolk
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