Two Pakistani clerics have come to blows at a meeting of the religious establishment over the fraught issue of the status of Ahmadis, a Muslim sect that hardliners want declared apostates. A scuffle broke out on Tuesday between the two at a gathering of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) when the chairman, Mohammad Khan Sherani, called on the group to consider whether Ahmadis, who are declared non-Muslims by the constitution, should be considered murtads that have rejected Islam.
Time is running out for the beleaguered Ahmadiyya Muslim Community on Bangka Island. Bangka Island’s top elected official, Tarmizi Saat, told a crowd on January 24 that he would ensure the expulsion of all members of the religious minority by February 6. He warnedthat expulsion enforcement measures from Bangka Island, located off the east coast of Sumatra, could begin as early as January 27. Adding to the fear factor for Bangka’s Ahmadiyya is an open letter circulated on January 22 by …
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada condemned the terrorist attack at a university in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. According to reports, four gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked Bacha Khan University in Charsadda today killing at least 19 people including students, teachers and staff members. They also used hand grenades.
“It’s one of the biggest disasters in my lifetime,” said Nudrat Mansoor with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women’s Association. “I was not here to see World War II, but it’s the biggest displacement after that– we want to help as many human beings as possible.” Mansoor is part of a local group of Muslim women who organized a sold out fundraiser Saturday night at the Baitul Hadi Mosque. The money raised will go toward Humanity First, an organization that privately sponsors …
A tiny Indonesian province has banned a minority Islamic sect from conducting religious activities, a move activists say raises concerns over intolerance in the Muslim-majority nation. The move by Bangka-Belitung, made up of two main islands off South Sumatra, is the latest in a series in which religious minorities including Christians and Shi’ite Muslims have faced harassment and complained of a lack of protection.
On Saturday Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. PM Sharif was received by Director General CERN Fabiola Gianotti. Uoin meeting PM Sharif Ms.Gianotti said that the Pakistani scientist Dr Abdus Salam had played an important role in the establishment of CERN.
The Indonesian bishops are stressing the need for a dialogue in ending a pattern of harassment and intimidation faced by the Ahmadiyya Muslim minority sect in Bangka district, Bangka-Belitung Islands province. In early January the local government ordered the Ahmadis living in Srimenanti village to either convert to Sunni Islam or face expulsion from the district.
The Vice President, Mr K. B. Amissah‐Arthur, yesterday met with the National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, Ghana at its headquarters in Accra. They discussed a range of issues including the protection of minority rights, religious tolerance and how to sustain the prevailing peace and stability of the country.
An Australian man will turn to the Australian Government for help after his 81-year-old Ahmadi Muslim father was imprisoned in Pakistan last month. Khalid Ahmad’s father, Abdul Shakoor, who owns a bookshop in Pakistan where the Ahmadi faith is outlawed, made international headlines when he was jailed for eight years in December for selling books deemed hurtful or hateful to another religious group’s beliefs.
Abul Shukoor a member of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Pakistan has been sentenced to 8 years in prison for the crime of keeping Ahmadiyya books. 81-year-old Shukoor and his bookstore manager Mazhar Ahmad were arrested on Dec. 2 by Punjab Police. Both were charged under section 298-C and provision 8 of the anti-terrorism act for the simple act of keeping books of Ahmadiyya Muslim faith. Shukoor has been sentenced to 8 years in prison and fined 150,000 PKR ($1,500) while his …
An Ahmadi man was killed in Chenab Nagar (Rabwa), the headquarters of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya, late on Monday. Bilal Ahmed, 26, was an active member and paid worker of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. His brother, Ghulam Tahir, is president of the Ahmadiyya community in his neighborhood of Darul Yaman, Rabwah.
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt during the Friday Prayer at a mosque in Bagmara, some 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.Around 15 members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community were injured in the blast. About 70 people were praying in the mosque at the time, said one worshiper, Mohammad Shaheb Ali Talukder, who was one of the wounded. When the bomber entered the mosque, “he first stood along with the people in the back and performed prayers on …