Al Jazeera: Believers or heretics? The battle between mainstream Muslims and the Ahmadiyya community

AJ Stream: In response to requests from our online community, we are focusing on the Ahmaddiya Muslim community. The ongoing battle between Ahmaddiyas and mainstream Muslims has gone largely unreported in the mainstream media. It's based on the Ahmaddiya belief that their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a Prophet and Messiah sent by God to save the world. Mainstream Muslims consider that heretical because they believe Muhammad was the last Prophet. So are the Ahmaddiyas believers or heretics?

Controversy surrounds the Ahmadiyya community whose members call themselves Muslim. Many mainstream Muslims contend that Ahmadiyyas are a separate religion entirely. The Ahmadiyyas believe their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a Prophet and Messiah sent by God to reform Islam. Ahmad was born in 1835 in the northern Indian town of Qadian.

Many Muslims claim Ahmadiyya beliefs are heretical to Islam because they believe Muhammad was the last Prophet.

Some Ahmadiyya leaders claim they have as many as 200 million followers around the world, but Islamic scholars say that number is between five and ten million. A majority of Ahmaddiya live on the Indian subcontinent.


This is part 1 of the show, scroll down for the full programme

In Pakistan, Ahmadiyyas say they have been systematically persecuted for decades. In 1974, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto passed a law declaring Ahmadiyyas a non-Muslim minority.

Currently, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws prohibit Ahmaddiyas from calling themselves Muslim, proselytising in the country, or referring to their places of worship as mosques. Human rights activists say Ahmadiyyas face discrimination in education, jobs, and housing in addition to physical violence and legal action under that country's blasphemy laws.

Even in other countries such as Indonesia and Iran, their places of worship have been burned and their followers targetted.

The current spiritual leader of the sect, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, leads the global community from the United Kingdom.

Click here to watch the full programme on Al Jazeera


Source/Credit: Al Jazeera, AJStream. By Al Jazeera, July 27, 2011