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Pakistan police kill leader of banned Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

Pakistani police say they have shot dead Malik Ishaq, the leader of banned Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Ishaq, who had been detained last week, was in a prison convoy in Punjab province when supporters opened fire in an attempt to free him, said police. They said Ishaq was killed in a gun fight along with his two sons and 11 militants in Muzaffargarh district.

The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion

In this path-breaking new work, Ali Usman Qasmi, assistant professor at LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences) traces the history of the political exclusion of the Ahmadiyya religious minority in Pakistan. According to a recent assessment of state persecution in Pakistan, the excommunicated Ahmadi community lost 39 members through murder in three years (2012-15). Forty Ahmadis were injured after assault and six were kidnapped. Eight Ahmadi graveyards were desecrated, 10 “places of worship” damaged, while harassment occurred in 11 cases. …

Pakistan’s 15-year-old record-breaker struggles to find university place

The brightest 15-year-old in the world can’t find a place at university because she’s too young. Sitara Brooj Akbar moved from Rabwah, Pakistan to the UAE last year after breaking international records in passing examinations. She is the youngest pupil to reach the top level, Band 9, in the International English Language Testing System. IELTS Band 9 qualifies her as an “expert user” of English, with “full operational command of the language: appropriate, accurate and fluent with complete understanding”.

Pakistan arrests Taliban responsible for Ahmadiyya Mosque attack

Taliban militants who attacked a Mosque of the minority Ahmadiyya community last week in Pakistan’s Punjab province have been arrested and arms, suicide jackets were seized from them, police said. Four terrorists had attacked ‘Baitul Salat Mosque’, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Taunsa Sharif, some 350 kilometres from Lahore, on July 11, Dera Ghazi Khan district police officer Ghulam Mubashar Maikin told reporters. During the attack on the Mosque a policeman deployed there was also shot, while the terrorists …

Prime Minister of Tuvalu visits head of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in London

The Prime Minister of Tuvalu visited the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad at the Fazl Mosque in London on Saturday 11 July 2015. During the meeting, His Excellency, Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga thanked the Khalifa for his continued efforts towards promoting world peace and for sending a humanitarian relief team to Tuvalu following Cyclone Pam earlier this year.

American Muslim Youth Respond to Chattanooga Shooting

Nation’s oldest Muslim youth group condemns the shooting, offers prayers to victims The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (AMYA), the boys and young men’s association of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, strongly condemns today’s shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Our condolences and prayers go out to the victims and their families, and our prayer is for peace and justice to be reinstated. “As we complete a month focused on fasting, reflection and service to our fellow countryman, I am very saddened to hear …

Policeman fatally shot while guarding Ahmadiyya Mosque

Gunmen shot and critically injured a policeman an Ahmadiyya Mosque in Southern Punjab on Saturday, also taking away his gun. The incident took place outside Ahmadiyya Mosque on College Road. The critically injured policeman, Irshad Hussain was taken to Tehsil Hospital Tounsa and then rushed to Nishtar hospital in Multan. “Police have registered a case with clauses of terrorism,” said an official, adding that police have rejected the possibility of any personal feud.

Nepal a religious refuge for many Pakistani Ahmadis

On a recent Sunday afternoon, a voice in Urdu echoes through a desolate neighborhood of a valley on the outskirts of Kathmandu. We are climbing a four-story building tucked away against green paddy fields. The voice grows louder. At the cramped, top floor apartment, amid a tattered carpet and mattresses, a desktop computer sits beside a rickety table fan. It is playing a grainy video for perhaps the umpteenth time. The video shows a heated debate between an analyst and …

Indonesian Governor promises to let Ahmadiyya keep their Jakarta Mosque

Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has said that he has ordered the South Jakarta Mayor and the Spatial Planning Agency to reopen an Ahmadiyya mosque in Tebet, and that he would promise to help the Ahmadiyya secure permits to keep their mosque open there. “We respect all kinds of beliefs. So, if they pray and do not bother other people, we have to let them be,” he said on Friday, adding that moreover, the Ahmadis had been praying there for …

Malaysian Department of Islamic Affairs (JAIS) threatens Ahmadis with arrest

Malaysian State of Selangor’s religious enforcers have threatened several followers of the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim Community with arrests in order to compel them to appear in the Shariah court to continue a trial that has been postponed twice since last year. According to the Ahmadis, the Selangor Department of Islamic Affairs (JAIS) is preparing arrest warrants to force 39 of its members ― three of them minors ― to appear before the Islamic courts, consequently violating a civil High Court …

Ahmadiyya Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia shut down by local authorities

Officials from the South Jakarta administration and the municipality’s Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) sealed the An Nur Ahmadiyya mosque in Bukit Duri Tanjakan, Tebet, on Wednesday morning, affixing a red banner that stated the mosque had been officially sealed by the Jakarta administration. The closure follows a June 12 incident in which a crowd of locals blocked the Ahmadis from performing their Friday prayers at the mosque, forcing them to fulfill their religious obligations in the street. Tri, a …

Muslim Leader demands ex-communication of those who radicalise children

Rafiq Hayat, national president of the moderate Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, says that moderate Muslims fear and despise Islamic State barbarism just as much as the rest of the British public. Security at the community’s huge mosque in Morden, Surrey, which can house 10,000 worshippers, has been stepped up to airport standards with metal and bomb detectors amid threats against the moderates in Britain and around the world. Now Mr Hayat says that it is time for responsible Muslims to react …