Canadian Minister of State Honourable Lynne Yelich (Foreign Affairs and Consular) & Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issued the following statement: “Canada is deeply saddened by the death of a Canadian doctor, Mehdi Ali Qamar, who was murdered in Pakistan on May 26. His murder is believed to be due to his Ahmadi faith. Sadly, he is among dozens of Ahmadis killed for their faith in recent years. “Canada condemns the pattern of violence against religious communities in Pakistan and the …
Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-California) and Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) released the following statements following the brutal killing of Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar in Pakistan this weekend. Qamar, an American cardiologist from Columbus, Ohio, was gunned down in front of his wife and toddler son. He was reportedly shot 10 times by one of two men on motorbike as he entered a cemetery to visit a family grave. He was an Ahmadiyya Muslim, a religious community that faces severe governmental and …
An American doctor of Pakistani origin was shot dead in central Pakistan by unidentified gunmen on Monday, police said, in an attack that appears to have targeted him because he was a member of the minority Ahmadiyya religious community. Mehdi Ali Qamar, 50, from Lancaster, Ohio, had traveled to Pakistan’s Punjab Province late last week to volunteer at the Tahir Heart Institute, one of Pakistan’s most highly regarded medical clinics. At around 5 a.m. he was walking out of a cemetery with …
Sunday was Hockey Morning in Canada. From coast to coast, Canadians set their alarms early to find a spot to watch the gold medal game between Canada and Sweden. Burhan Goraya was no different. While many lined up on the street to get into their favourite watering hole, Mr. Goraya was off to morning prayers at the Baitul Islam Mosque in Vaughan. He slipped off his shoes and headed into a room with the other men and children of the …
Haris Khan a student at Scoil Eoin ,Ballincollig has developed an iPhone App Super Soccer Kicks pictured with his 5th Class classmates. Haris Khan’s love of sport and computer games have helped him become one of the world’s youngest app developers. Super Soccer Kicks works on Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, and was launched last Friday — just days before Haris’s 11th birthday. He has seen nearly 400 downloads of the free app in the last week, but is …
The Khalifa of Islam, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, lamented the “pitiful and sorry-state” of much of the Muslim world during his weekly Friday Sermon delivered on 31st January 2014. Speaking at the Baitul Futuh Mosque in London, the Khalifa highlighted the examples of war-torn Syria and of Pakistan, where he said countless innocent people were being targeted and persecuted. He called on Ahmadi Muslims around the world to pray for the peace and stability of the Muslim world. Speaking about …
CHANDIGARH: Around 5,000 Pakistanis will cross over Punjab to participate in a three-day annual International Ahmadiyya Muslim Conference will be held at the Ahmadiyya Muslim headquarters in Qadian, Gurdaspur, beginning December 27. The first batch of 700 delegates arrived from Pakistan via Attari border and were welcomed by residents of Qadians, including Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims. One of the delegates said religious expression of Ahmadiya Muslims in Pakistan was banned 35 years ago. “We are not allowed to express …
A 72-year-old British doctor is in prison in Pakistan for “posing as a Muslim”, charges that reveal an escalating ideological fight that often spills over into violence. Masood Ahmad is a quiet, reserved widower who returned to Pakistan to open a pharmacy in 1982 after decades of working in London to pay his children’s school fees, his family said. He is also an Ahmadi, a sect that consider themselves Muslim but believe in a prophet after Mohammed. A 1984 Pakistani …
As Friday prayers end thousands of believers stream out of the mosque. Keen-eyed men with Pashtun cheekbones hover by a convoy of cars, many of them wearing the traditional hats of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier province. Were it not for the Tube depot in the background, one could be in that exotic land with its long and sometimes unhappy links with Britain. Departing last, and driven safely away, is Hadhrat Mizra Masroor Ahmad, the fifth leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya community. …
The World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Fifth Khalifa, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad addressed an audience of more than 100 Japanese dignitaries and guests on 9 November 2013 at a Special Reception held at the Mielparque Hotel in Nagoya. During his address, His Holiness explained Islam’s true and peaceful teachings; he condemned all forms of terrorism and extremism; he spoke movingly about the Japanese people and he appealed to Japan’s leaders to strive for world peace.
The World Head and Fifth Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad delivered an historic address at New Zealand’s National Parliament in Wellington on 4 November 2013. In front of an audience of Parliamentarians, Ambassadors of State, academics and a range of other guests, the Khalifa advocated the urgent need for justice as a means to develop world peace in the face of increasing tensions and conflicts in various parts of the world. Indeed, His Holiness deemed …
Being a member of an ethnic or religious minority in Pakistan brings with it inherent risks – something dramatically illustrated in Peshawar last month when a bomb attack on a church killed at least 85 people. The US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2012 notes that the 5 percent who constitute the non-Muslim population in a country of just over 190 million face persecution in many forms, including “attacks on houses of worship, religious gatherings, and religious leaders …