The morality preached by both Muslims and Ahmadis is generally the same. Both communities are affected by a pervasive, attractive and in many ways deeply negative culture that tends to leads them away from the noble teachings that they are imbued with.

The result is an entire generation of youth who, even if their identity as Muslim or Ahmadi, still engage in the harmful and sinful behaviors of their larger cultural context. The leadership of these respective communities feel obligated to call their youth back.

Here are their approaches:

The Official Ahmadiyya Approach

1. Mirza Masroor threatening to “kick out” young women who find it difficult to cover: Video available here. And if you “challenge” him, you’re a hypocrite.
2. Spying and gossip about wayward youth (Leaked reports here)
3. Public humiliations and ex-communications for people who engage in sinful behavior, justified in Tariq Magazine (Full Transcript here)
4. Ban Facebook: The exact statement is “The practice of making and maintaining individual facebook pages/accounts is not permitted.“ http://www.alislam.org/egazette/faq/facebook-policy/
5. “Desi Uncle knows best” immaturity to modern problems.

The General Muslim Approach

Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan gives a wonderful presentation where he illustrates the Crisis of Faith and Confidence affecting the Muslim community. I’ll be honest, he’s brutal. If you’re an Ahmadi looking to bash Muslim communities, you’ll find plenty of fodder here.

But listen to the maturity and the depth of thought this one Muslim presents that puts Mirza Masroor’s lack of intellectualism to shame. For example, regarding Ahmadiyya’s “Ban Facebook” approach, Khan argues that Facebook is not the problem, it is merely a symptom of a larger problem. By simply banning Facebook, you will merely create an “Everything is haraam” mentality.

Instead, his solutions are:

• Create A Culture Around Strong Friendship
• Create an Open Forum
• Internalization, Then Islamic Knowledge
• Psychological Crisis Among Older Youth
• Studying Islam in Secular Universities
• Equipping Our Youth to Leave Being Defensive

The full talk is available here:The transcript is available here (Thanks MuslimMatters!)

And this is just one example, other organizations, institutions and individuals are rising to the challenge to address these problems.

Conclusion

Both the Muslim and the Ahmadiyya communities are facing the same crisis. One of them addresses it by ex-communications, public humiliations, spying, banning Facebook, and the “Holier than Thou” approach. The other deals with the root problems and posits positive, constructive solutions, and calls back wayward Muslims.

Which do you believe in?

و صلى الله على سيدنا محمد و على آله محمد

I was blessed to attend the 2011 Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference in Toronto this past December. I usually dislike conferences as being shallow, mostly image and lacking substance, but this was an exception. I would recommend everyone attend, and I intend to go next year, in sha Allah.

The following is a cell-phone clip from a talk by Shaykh Habib ‘Ali al-Jifri presenting the famous and beautiful Hadith Musalsal of Love.

For those who cannot watch the video, Shaykh Habib ‘Ali narrates that one day the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم met Mu’adh ibn Jabal رحمه الله and said, “Indeed I love you. So when you finish your prayers, do not forget to say ‘Oh Allah, I seek your help in remembering you, and thanking you and perfecting my worship of you.’”. When Mu’adh told the next person, he began by saying “Indeed, I love you”, thus spreading the love of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم, and continued with the rest of the narration.

This tradition continued from one to the next to begin by telling the recipient, “Indeed, I love you”, until it came to Shaykh Habib ‘Ali from his Shaykhs. So Shaykh Habib ‘Ali said to the crowd of around ~20,000, “Indeed, I love you all, So whenever you finish your prayers, do not forget to say ‘Oh Allah, I seek your help in remembering you, and thanking you and perfecting my worship of you.’”

The Love of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم traveled through time and place through an unbroken chain and reached us.  This type of hadith, where you say it to the next person, is called a Hadith Musalsal. I put this video to help dispel the “Jahil mullah molvie terrorist” stereotype that is presented by some within the Ahmadiyya community.

One final point. When someone watches a video like this, his or her natural reaction is to want to do Durood Shareef (Salawat). The most proper way of doing so is to send ask Allah to send prayers upon the Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family. A simple form would be Allahumma salli ‘ala saydina Muhammad wa ‘ala aali saydina Muhammad.

May Allah guide us all.

و صلى الله على سيدنا محمد و على آله و سلم تسليما

One of the most amazing aspects of Islamic history are the stages that the Muslim community passed through. It seems that in every generation a new issue arose that needed to be dealt with, and through Allah’s Lutf (subtle care) different personages and figures came to help stabilize the Ummah.

Such stages of Fitnah include:

• The shock and instability after the death of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم;
• The four false prophets who arose in Arabia and subsequent wars with Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه;
• The crusaders versus the numerous Muslims generals;
• The Tatar invasion of Ghengis Khan when ‘Izz al-Din ibn ‘Abd al-Salam unified the Muslims;
• You see this pattern repeated…

But what about the fitnah of Sectarianism?

If you read ahadith about the 73-sects, you might get this impression that you need to ask yourself which of the 73-sects you are upon? Which is true? Which am I? How do I know which is correct? Lets have a debate and find out! But then ask yourself, is sectarianism really the main problem in our times?

Sectarianism is a fitnah that the Muslim world primarily experienced 100-300 years after the departure of the noble Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم. During this period is when the Muslims divided into literally hundreds of small theological, political and social groups, each claiming to be the “True Islam”. Compounding the problem, many of those new ideologies held extremely compelling arguments in their favor – don’t think they were flimsy!

It was during that time that the masses were engaged in debate over the technicalities and subtleties of the Deen. Confusion was wide-spread, father and son, student and teacher, governor and subject, even two highly ranked scholars all would vehemently argue. Many were influenced by outside ideologies without even realizing it. Others embraced invented ideas wholeheartedly. Some new groups gained prominence, one even took control of the Khilafah!

But as Allah says in the Qur’an, “Travel through the land; then observe how was the end of the deniers.” If we reflect on this ayah, Allah is not calling on us to see how a splinter-sect thrived during its glory days, but how it ended. The vast majority of those sects and groups are no longer in existence today. Some burned out, most fell into obscurity with only a few thousand scattered followers nowadays. Alhumdu lillah, our generation was largely saved from that Fitnah.

At this moment, the vast majority of the Muslims follow “regular Islam”, version 1.0, and are at little risk of joining the remnants of a break-away group. What does this tell us? This is not the era of sectarianism or schisms. ‘Aqidah problems are rarely the immediate issue with contemporary Muslims. The debates are over, that fitnah has come and gone. And just as we do not need to excessively concern ourselves with past issues, we do not need to re-engage ourselves in questions of dogmatic belief that have already been answered. Islam does not need to be re-invented. Newly created arguments are exactly how break-away sects are formed in the first place! Instead we stand on the shoulders of giants to face the current issues that that plague our modern community.

But the Ahmadiyya religion seeks to re-open questions that, not only were answered centuries ago, are not subjects of contemporary debate and have no relevance to our modern times. They went as far as to publish this ludicrous lists of the “72 sects”, many of whom have not even existed in hundreds of years, but somehow allegedly came back into existence, managed to unify, all condemn Ahmadiyya, and then went back into non-existence. Convenient.

You tell me:

• What is telling a woman who was raped by Qadaffi’s forces that, “by the way, the Mahdi came about 100 years ago, looks like everyone missed him”, going to do for her shattered self-esteem and self-respect?
• What is a Somali man who watched all of his children die from starvation in the droughts going to do if you tell him, “Jesus is dead”.
• What is a Chechen mother whose son “disappeared” going to do with your attempts to convince her that half of the Qur’an is a bunch of confusing metaphors whose correct understanding no one understood for 1300 years?

Clearly ‘Aqidah is not the primary issue of our times. But the “problems” Ahmadiyya attempts to solve are not on the minds of Muslims, nor are they even our concerns. No one is looking at a calendar thinking, “Man, so when is ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه السلام going to return?” My friends, you are dwelling on non-issues to a people who have more immediate concerns on their minds.

Just like every other break-away group that preceded it, Ahmadiyya has come, will run its course, and will eventually fade away.I am glad that our pious predecessors protected the religion from corruption during the era of sectarianism, and I pray for the forgiveness of those who were sincere but slipped into misguidance. May Allah guide us all to the Truth and keep us firm upon it.

و صلى الله على سيدنا محمد و على آله و سلم

The Messiah is ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه السلام.

Per the Qur’an, no one else is the Messiah other than ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه السلام.

We are Muslims who believe in the Messiah, ‘Esa bin Maryam عليه السلام.

We invite Ahmadis to accept the Messiah.

May Allah guide us all

as-salaamu `alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatuh. We’re delighted to share with you another story of reversion to Islam from the Ahmadiyya cult and it gives me great pleasure to announce that it is my friend Rasheed Sarpong who has come back to Islam. This inspiring young man is a real role model, who it has been my privilege to know. Even when he was Qadiani for many years after my reversion, I always held him and his family in respect. because of his character. I had a feeling that one day, insha’Allah, he would be guided to the right path by Allah (SWT) and alhamdulillah, it happened.

Enjoy!

1-     Their Mahdi was born in the 19^th Century, and died on a Tuesday.

2-     Their Mahdi claimed that he is from Persian origins.

3-     Their Mahdi claimed that he is also a descendant of Fatimah (ra) and Ahlulbait.

4-     Their Mahdi wrote many Arabic books, one of these books was Tafseer of Surat-ul-Fatiha.

5-     Their Mahdi plagiarized parts of some verses and Maqamat in his Arabic writings.

6-     A double eclipse happened in Ramadhan during the lifetime of their Mahdi.

7-     Their Mahdi was brought to a local court for trial.

8-     Their Mahdi used Hisab Al-Jummal (numerical values of the words / Arabic alphanumeric coding) to prove that he is the true Mahdi.

9-     Their Promised One was a Mirza who claimed that the signs mentioned by all Hadeeths and holy books about the Promised Messiah have been fulfilled by him.

10-  Their Promised One, the Mirza, was born in the 13th Hijri century and died in the 14th Hijri century during the last week of May.

11-  Their Promised One, the Mirza, sent a letter to Queen Victoria asking her to accept him and to follow his teachings.

12-  Their Promised One claimed that he did not study Arabic language, however he could write dozens of Arabic and Persian books. His followers consider this as a great sign that proves his truthfulness.

13-  They consider the prophecies of their Promised One as another sign that proves his truthfulness.

14-  Their Promised One said that Jihad is not allowed anymore.

15-  Their Promised One praised Mohammad (SAAW) many time in his writings.

16-  Their Promised One was considered – by his own followers only – to be the greatest writer ever (“Sultan Al-Qalam” or “Faris Al-Maani”)

17-  Their Promised One used Hisab Al-Jummal (numerical values of the words) to prove that Islam had died for 1000 years until the 19th century.

18-  Their Promised One claimed that he himself is the manifestation/appearance of God. However the official position of his followers today is that manifestation of God does not mean that he himself is a God.

19-  Their Promised One challenged all scholars to write a book that is equivalent to his book.

20-  Their Promised One claimed that he is an Avatar, i.e. the “reincarnation of Krishna”.

21-  Their Promised One claimed that he was sent by Allah (SWT) to the people of the world.

22-  Their Mujaddid claimed that upon the death of a human being, his soul will immediately be given a special body that has had special nature.

23-  Their Promised One claimed that sometimes the divine revelations do not follow human idiom and sometime does not even follow the rules of grammar.

24-  Their Promised One claimed that he had been given the qualities of many prophets: e.g. Mohammad (SAAW), Isa (as), Musa (as), etc.

25-  Their Promised One claimed that Yawm Al-Qiyamah will come after around 1000 years.

26-  Their Mujaddid believed that the Heaven and the Hell are spiritual places and not physical places.

27-  Their Promised One claimed that he had been receiving secret revelations for 10 years confirming that he is the promised one, however he waited 10 years before revealing this secret.

28-  Their Promised One had invented new names of God.

29-  They consider Quran as a Holy Book, however they also consider the Arabic Wahi of their Promised One as holy, divine and sacred.

30-  Their holy Arabic revelation said that their Promised One does not speak out of his own desire, it is all Wahi vouchsafed to him

31-  Their holy Arabic revelation instructed them not to worship any god but Allah.

32-  Many of their Promised One’s Arabic revelations are just meaningless distortion of some Quranic verses.

33-  Their promised Reformer was also a Mirza like his father, the Promised One

34-  Their promised Reformer died in the month of November at an age of around 77 years.

35-  Their promised Reformer introduced some interpretations that are different from the original teachings of the Promised One.  

36-  One of their Mirzas introduced a new special solar calendar. The months of the new calendar have had new Arabic names.

37-  Their message to the world is that ‘Glory not in love for your country, but in love for all mankind’.

38-  It is obligatory for them to pay to their leadership a specific amount of money that had been decided by their Promised One.

39-  They believe that the antichrist is not a specific evil individual or entity.

40-  Their leader claimed that the most important role for his followers is to show the true good image of Islam and the true Islamic teachings to the western people and the whole world.

41-  Their Mujaddid believed that the promised one should not descend from heaven but he would appear in the body of another person.

42-  They interpret many of the words “Jinn” mentioned in Quran to mean “human beings who are fiery natured”.

43-  Their Mujaddid did not believe that the moon was split up literally into two parts during the lifetime of Mohammad (SAAW).

44-  They teach that everyone must be loyal to the government that rules his country, whatever that government is.

45-  They believe that divine revelations have not been stopped and will always continue to descend.

46-  Their main center in the Middle East is located near to the city of Haifa, Palestine.

47-  The followers of their Promised One in Palestine receive very special treatment from the Israeli government. However, they face a sort of persecution in some Muslim countries.

48-  They are not allowed by the Saudi government to enter Mecca or Madinah.

49-  They believe that Mohammad (SAAW) is “Khatam-un-Nabiyyean”, however they claim that it does not mean “the last prophet”.

50-  Their women are not allowed to marry Muslims who do not believe in their Promised One.

51-  They use the Quranic verses 69:45/46 ((And if he had fabricated against Us some of the sayings * We would certainly have seized him by the right hand)) to prove that their Promised One was truthful as he was not killed.

52-  They claim that some kings/presidents had accepted the teachings of their Promised One.

53-  They consider most of the miracles – which were shown by the prophets in Quran and the holy books – as sort of metaphor.

54-  They believe that the body of Isa (as) was put on the cross.

55-  They believe that Isa (as) had died.

56-  They believe that Miraaj did not happen to the body of Rasulullah (saaw) but to his soul only.

57-  They believe that Surat At-Takweer mentions the signs of their Promised One, and not the signs of Yawm Al-Qiyamah.

58-  They translated some of the books of their Mahdi to some languages; however they still did not translate many of his Arabic books to any other language. Apparently they could not understand many of his odd, irrelevant and meaningless Arabic sentences

59-  They claim that they have millions of followers in more than 200 countries. However, my own estimation about their total number worldwide is less than 2 millions.

60-  Their promised Reformer caused the movement to split into two sects. Each sect says that the other sect is not on the right path.

However I would summarize the main differences between Ahmadis and Bahais as follows:

1-     The Mujaddid according to Ahmadis was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani. The Mujaddid according to Bahais was Shaykh Ahmad bin Zayn-ud-Deen al-Ahsaai.

2-     The Mahdi according to Ahmadis was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani. The Mahdi according to Bahais was Ali Mohammad Shirazi.

3-     The Promised One according to Ahmadis was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani. The Promised One according to Bahais was Mirza Hussain Ali Nuri.

4-     The Promised Reformer according to Ahmadis was Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood.  The Promised Reformer according to Bahais was Mirza Abbas Effendi “Abdul-Baha”.

5-     The Ahmadi solar calendar was invented by Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood. The Bahai solar calendar was invented by Ali Mohammad Shirazi.

Can you find any other difference?

Introduction

I was alerted to a story in the Ahmadiyya Times blog today that risibly depicts Shaykh Suliman Gani as an extremist. I think that this warrants a libel claim against the editor of the Ahmadiyya Times. It wouldn’t be the first time that the Ahmadiyya/Qadiani cult has used extreme language to describe Muslims or their representative bodies, but on this occasion, they appear to be nailing their colours to the mast of a shadowy new group called “Student Rights“. Interestingly, Student Rights stops short of labelling Shaykh Suliman, one of the gentlest, most humane people I’ve ever met as an extremist, but the Qadiani hate group, the only “religion” in the world with the word “hate” in their slogan and the only one that bans its members from using Facebook, was not so concerned about the use of the word “Extremist” in the headline of their edited piece.

The Student Rights article describes the views of a billion Muslims that the Qadiani cult is outside Islam as “bigoted”. Good luck with that one! It’s hardly a controversial position, being held by every Muslim authority on the planet. Since when does the normative tradition of any religion have to justify which heretical group it does and doesn’t include? Such sensationalist trash belongs in the gutter, like the defunct News of the World.

This piece might as well have been written by Basha Nazir, the Qadiani PR man caught with his pants down trying to get his members to lie to Channel 4 about their identity. This was in a vain attempt to game Darshna Soni in the wake of their failed hate campaign of 2010, based on a leaflet that didn’t exist. In fact, many releases we have seen lazy journalists and politicians use have come straight from the pens of the Qadiani spin-masters. If only journalists and politicians did a little more homework.

Curious about this new, somewhat opaque group and its unusual eagerness to attack mainstream Muslim figures like Shaykh Suliman Gani and Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, I decided to look more closely at their board of advisors. You might be surprised at what crawled out of the woodwork, but then again, perhaps not.

The first question we surely must ask is, of what relevance is Islamophobia to student rights? The naming of this oddball site is one of many anomalies. One can only imagine that “student rights” acts as an overt façade for Islamophobia, because let’s face it, Muslim students are British too, and also have rights. Perhaps the Islamophobic, Qado-Zionist-sympathising board of Student Rights might be interested in the rights of Qadiani students ordered by their leaders not to mix with Muslim students at university? That’d be worth a blog on social cohesion.Or perhaps they might be interested in the old men of the Ahmadiyya covertly spying on students?

I think it’s very important that Muslims become aware of this shadowy hate group and understand that the agenda of the Zionists, the Islamophobes, the Extreme Right and the Qadiani Ahmadiyya is aligned. If you need to see proof of that, you need only visit the Student Rights blog, which frankly, makes Mad Mel look, well, not so mad.

I’m sure Hamza Tzortzis will not be worried by this stupid bunch of clowns, and neither should Shaykh Suliman. All that’s happened is that this group has helped clarify that the Qadiani agenda is reprehensible to all Muslims. Thanks to Student Rights for making this crystal clear!

Hilariously, the Student Rights blog carries on with its absurd canards about the Islam Channel and other mainstream Muslim representatives, denouncing many of our leading figures and conflating them arbitrarily and clumsily to more extreme figures.

On then, to a quick analysis of the board of Student Rights.

Rt Hon Jim Fitzpatrick MP

Jim Fitzpatrick, a Government minister, has publicly condemned the Muslim tradition of separating men and women at weddings. The farming minister and his wife walked out of the marriage ceremony of a constituent after discovering they would have to sit in separate rooms. He said the gender segregation was a sign of increasing radicalisation and was damaging to social cohesion.

However, Muslim leaders insist the custom is traditional at Islamic weddings as well as in mosques, and expressed surprise that Mr Fitzpatrick, a third of whose east London constituents are Muslims, was unaware of the fact.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, a founding member of the Muslim Council of Britain, said:

“I think in the interest of cohesion it would be better if Mr Fitzpatrick established more contact with the Muslim community. It shows a lack of interest on the part of the MP to engage with people with different backgrounds and sadly it reflects badly on him.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Even the right wing Telegraph condemned Fitzpatrick’s actions as “foolish and inappropriate“

George Galloway went further:

“I am absolutely amazed and astonished that a Government minister with a substantial Muslim minority in his constituency should have decided to give such a gratuitous insult to so many Muslims.”

The Ahmadiyya do not allow mixed weddings themselves. Perhaps they should think twice before backing Student Rights. Or perhaps Fitzpatrick, who advises a site so firmly on the side of the deceptive Ahmadiyya cult, should be advised as to the the latter’s real nature? (Perhaps he should just be very careful what he puts his name to, if he wants to avoid future accusations of Islamophobia.)

Fitzpatrick of course rejects accusations of Islamophobia and as recently as 2010 asked the Muslim community to judge him on his record. It’s entirely possible that he was misrepresented or given bad advice. In which case, he needs to be made aware of the extremely divisive agenda of Student Watch and to understand that the figures this group is attacking are mainstream. Baroness Warsi was courageous enough to stand up to this type of scaremongering and warned against having Muslims divided into extremists and moderates. This approach legitimises caricatures and stereotypes and allows the question “So when did you stop beating your wife?” to be asked without concern. The Ahmadiyya should be utterly ashamed of peddling such hatred and continuing its smear campaign, but it’s no surprise, as Muslims have continually warned.

My personal feeling is that Fitzpatrick should have it brought to his attention that Student Rights would not have the backing of any legitimate Muslim representation. He would find that his own East London community would be shocked to find him on the board of such a virulently anti-Muslim organisation that is also so openly pro-Qadiani.

Rt Hon Tom Brake MP

Brake is the MP for Carshalton and Wallington, where many of his constituents are Qadianis. He has attended their annual Jalsa Salana event on several occasions and is totally supportive of their offensive Islamophobic campaign. Like a few other gullible politicians, he was taken in by the opportunistic hate campaign orchestrated by the Qadianis in 2010, where it was found that false statements had been made (on oath!) by the Ahmadiyya, and which ended up making the Qadianis look duplicitous in the eyes of the police. Brake hosted a tour of the House of Commons for the Lahori Ahmadiyya. His bias is therefore self-evident.

Robert Halfon MP

Halfon, a Tory MP is a former Political Director of the Conservative Friends of Israel. We could stop right there, but let’s continue. Halfon is no stranger to launching attacks on Muslims or their representation. Inayat Bunglawala reported Halfon making the following disgusting and defamatory accusation about the Muslim advocacy group Engage in the House of Commons:

“Will the Leader of the House find time for an urgent statement on iEngage, the secretariat of the newly formed all-party parliamentary group on Islamophobia? iEngage has a track record of being aggressively anti-Semitic and homophobic, and has extensive links with terrorism in Tunisia and the middle east.”

Inayat correctly reported that Halfon can only get away with such statements because he was protected from libel by parliamentary privilege.

Inayat has challenged Halfon in strong terms to repeat his comments in public. Halfon is an Islamophobic monster who would find much in common with the Ahmadiyya cult’s chief apologists.

Rt Hon Kim Howells

Dr. Kim Howells is a Labour Friend of Israel. Spotting a pattern here? Pro-Israeli, Pro-Qadiani, anti-Muslim haters and possibly one or two unwitting cohorts who got suckered in without realising what was going on.

MPACUK reported in 2009 that Howells suggested the government use the money it would save by pulling troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq to spy on Muslims. One should remember that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya cult offered his spying services to the occupying government of the time.

Rt Hon Denis MacShane

It’s hard to know where to start with this nutty Zionist attack dog, but Inayat Bunglawala nails this confirmed Zionist for a lot more than Zionism and Islamophobia. This offensive man with zero credibility amongst Muslims and millions of others was also found to have claimed £125k in MP expenses for his garage. Why didn’t this hater end up in jail? Probably because Zionism got to his head and made him completely nuts.

Halfon isn’t the only MP abusing parliamentary privilege to spread lies. MacShane also smeared MPACUK earlier in 2011.

It’s not just Muslims who have problems with this crazy guy, our Jewish friends do too.

Shiraz Maher

A good background on Maher can be found at Indigo Jo Blogs in the article Shiraz Maher fails to prove his point (again)

Engage shows Maher criticising the US Ambassador for visiting the East Lonon Mosque.

Maher, who sports a trademark Qadiani beard (don’t worry, I don’t actually think he’s a Qadiani) supported Hazel Blears in her unprecedented and stupid war against the MCB in the wake of Israel’s assault on the people of Gaza in 2009. Maher then demanded the resignation of Daud Abdullah, sounding just like a Qadiani, a Chaa-wala to use Asghar Bukhari’s interesting metaphor.

A pretty good picture of Maher is painted by his friends and the company he is associated with, including the likes of Ed Husain, who after leaving the discredited Quilliam, now works for the Council on Foreign Relations. Maher counts amongst his admirers The Sun’s Trevor Kavanagh. (The Sun of course, recently apologised for faking a story about a Muslim bus driver, not the first time they’ve invented negative stories about Muslims in an attempt to fan Islamophobia.)

One wonders whether the Qadianis will also at some point apologise for inventing the story of a a hate leaflet in 2010 that acted as a driver for their Islamophobic campaign of 2010, brought crashing to a halt thanks to numerous embarrasing leaks on thecult.info and the brave and upright work done by Akber Choudhry in defending the Khatmenabuwwah Academy in East London. Many Muslims took part in exposing the underhand shenanigans of the Qadianis and they would be too numerous to list, but they know who they are and they are a credit to Muslims and to Britain.

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill

He was the Chair of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel until 2010 and is currently a Vice President. I think we can end the discussion right there, don’t you?

Daniel Johnson

(We’d be grateful if anyone could source information on Johnson for us.)

Dr Alan Mendoza

Mendoza and Ramm appear together an awful lot with Douglas Murray, who made this contribution to social cohesion and harmony at a conference in the Netherlands in 2006:

“It is late in the day, but Europe still has time to turn around the demographic time-bomb which will soon see a number of our largest cities fall to Muslim majorities. It has to. All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop…. Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition.”

Far be it for me to use “guilt by association” as a tactic. let’s delve further into Mendoza specifically. He is the Executive Director of The Henry Jackson Society, which includes as signatories the Rt Hon Michael Gove (an Islamophobe), Denis MacShane (Zionist, expenses monkey, liar and Islamophobe), Stephen Pollard (Editor, the Jewish Chronicle) and our friend Robert Halfon MP, whose Islamophobic credentials were established above.

Mendoza came down heavily in favour of Israel, casting them as peacemakers in the wake of their horrific assault on Lebanon in 2006.

Google Mendoza, Ramm and Murray to hear them whine on if you’re really curious.

Benjamin Ramm

I haven’t looked too hard on material for him, but Lenin had this to say in 2005:

The editor of The Liberal, Ben Ramm, was the most unbearable speaker of the whole night. Snide, cocky and actually insistent on a return to Free Trade – Victorian England style! Why he was invited, I shall never know. He was uncompromisingly for the Liberal Democrats, of course, and was heckled by those who are familiar with the Liberal record in Sheffield, Liverpool and elsewhere. I tuned out.

Now we can’t condemn a man for being snide and cocky, after all, I’ve been that too at times. What we can condemn a man for is a return to Free Trade Victorian England style. This was uncompromising and made Thatcherism look like revolutionary socialism in comparison.

However, his position on Islam and Zionism isn’t clear, so he gets let off the hook. I guess he’s in because he hangs out with the Zionist Mendoza and the Islamophobe Murray.

Alex Radzyner

Radzyner is the writer of the ‘London Theater Goer’ blog.

***

Conclusion

So there you have it. A list of mostly rather unsavoury characters to say the least. As to who actually writes the Student Rights blog, it’s hard to tell, but given the list above and the brazenly pro-Qadiani agenda, given the heavy Zionist influences and the cast of usual suspects, it’s very easy to see why Qadiani Ahmadiyya is regarded with such suspicion by Muslims and anyone who stands against racism, right-wing extremism and Islamophobia. After all, it was very much the rhetoric displayed by the Student Rights team that led to Anders Breivik mass murdering dozens of kids in Norway.

Given the utter lack of mainstream credibility that “Student Rights” will get thanks to the extreme positions taken up by the majority of its board, I’d advise the targets of this farcical blog-rag not to worry too much about its hysterical, frothing, but really funny output.  I’d also advise a few of the board members who value their remaining credibility to distance themselves from this hateful site.

It’s time for the Qadianis and their friends to stop being troublemakers, to stop telling lies, to stop exaggerating the so-called “Muslim threat” and to start building bridges. I doubt they will do that. They, like many cohesion-haters, including the far right, Islamophobes and Zionists seek to divide communities by creating a false picture of hatred and seeing monsters where there aren’t any. There is little doubt that groups like the Ahmadiyya cult help to stoke the fear that inspired Anders Breivik to kill scores of Norwegian socialist children in a chillingly political massacre, a crime that is more popularly described as terrorism. We mustn’t let such groups deceive our institutions and we mustn’t let them attack our representative bodies without an answer.

(Thanks to Islamophobia Watch and Engage, many of the above stories were documented by them)

(A previous version of this article stated the following: Brake hosted a tour of the House of Commons for the Ahmadiyya – after feedback, we have clarified this line to qualify Ahmadiyya with “Lahori”.)

My apologies for the rustiness, I had not much time to prepare and this was my first public talk in quite a while.

Please note that the video source is 720p, so going full-screen should give you reasonable quality insha’Allah.

[Update: January 2, 2012, 2:39 PM - the server is getting hammered through demand, so we are uploading the video elsewhere to make the streaming experience a bit better, insha'Allah]

[Update: January 2, 2012, 4:42 PM] – we are still getting reports of slow streaming speed, so we have removed the video and we will fix the error and repost within the next 6 hours insha’Allah, thanks for your patience in the meantime]

[Update: January 2, 2012, 10:15 PM] – good news – the video has been shrunk a little and uploaded to a faster server, it should be OK now, insha’Allah]

Kim Jong-Il the long ruling dictator of North Korea has died. Over the years he was given a divine like status by the state propaganda machine. According to state propaganda his birth was prophesized by a swallow and heralded by a double rainbow and his life was, apparently, not any less eventful with many miraculous events being attributed to him, such as having the ability to even control the weather. In describing his death, the state media declared it caused the heavens and earth to shake and magical writing appeared on the side of a mountain. All this religious fervour, bizarrely, comes from an atheistic communist party.

News channels around the world have been showing some remarkable images of North Koreans mourning the death.  Many people found the whole spectacle somewhat baffling, given what this man has done to his people over the years. Kim Jong-Il and his party have made North Korea into one of the most closed and isolated countries in the world. The citizens are denied freedom, access to the most basic of amenities is forbidden such as imported food, mobile phones, movies, internet, and the state apparatus monitors the words and movement of everyone. Yet these draconian rules don’t apply to everyone, all that is forbidden to North Koreans lay people is readily enjoyed by the ruling elite and in particular the dictator or ‘dear leader’ as everyone is taught to call him. In the 1990’s as many as 3.5 million North Koreans died of starvation, while the dictator and his cronies wallowed in luxuries. While children died of lack of food, the ‘dear leader’ was eating imported lobster and drinking champagne, whilst watching his collection of 20,000 Hollywood movies.

Yet Kim Jong-Il’s behaviour and hypocrisy is not unique to him, everywhere across the world where ever we find dictators, we find this pattern of behaviour. Dictatorship can be defined as totalitarian rule by one or a few group of people. The power of rule is often obtained through force or inheritance and is maintained through a propaganda instilling a combination of fear and idolization of the dictator. Most dictatorships transform into hereditary dictatorships, where power is held and transferred through a single family.

The Muslim world has more than its fair share of hereditary dictators, what then does Islam have to say on the matter? Well a very interesting hadith tackles the subject very nicely, in which the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) prophesizes the political leadership of the Muslim Ummah as follows:

From Hudhayfah that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said:

“The Prophethood will remain amongst you for as long as Allah wills it to be. Then Allah will raise it when He wills to raise it. Then there will be the khilafah upon the Prophetic methodology. And it will last for as long as Allah wills it to last. Then Allah will raise it when He wills to raise it. Then there will be biting kingship, and it will remain for as long as Allah wills it to remain. Then Allah will raise it when He wills to raise it. Then there will be tyrannical (forceful) kingship and it will remain for as long as Allah wills it to remain. Then He will raise it when He wills to raise it. Then there will be a khilafah upon the Prophetic methodology. Then he (the Prophet) صلى الله عليه و سلم was silent.”
[Reported by Ahmad and Abu Dawud.]

Let us list the stages outlined the hadith

1. Prophethood of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم)
2. Rightly guided Caliphate (Just and righteous rule)
3. Hereditary rule (Kingship)
4. Oppressive hereditary rule (Dictatorship)
5. Rightly guided Caliphate (Just and righteous rule restored)

Looking at the history of the Muslim Ummah, we can see this prophecy has unfolded step by step. The rightly guided period of the Khulafa Rashidun upon the Prophet’s (صلى الله عليه و سلم) Sunnah, is characterised by the following:

1. The rule was not hereditary, i.e. it was not held and transferred by a single family.
2. There was ‘rule of law’ where the Khalifa could be held to account by a judge or even a layperson.
3. The Khalifa’s role was one of serving the people and not for personal benefit.
4. The Khulafa shunned an opulent and luxurious life, despite the huge wealth coming into the possession of the state. For example after Muslims liberated Jerusalem, Sayidina Umar entered the city on foot (while his servant was riding a on a camel) wearing clothes with patches on them and refused to wear luxurious clothing.

The following article was submitted by Br. Muhammed Khan

In 2008, the American Muslim community wept as Wallace Deen Muhammad returned to Allah. I’ve met many famous people in my life, but amongst the most memorable was meeting W. Deen Muhammad. It was Fall 2003, and I was a beardless 19 year old sophomore in college. I took a trip to North Carolina with some older African-American Muslim gentlemen to meet and schedule him to deliver a talk for our Muslim Students Association (MSA). He had striking blue eyes and a glow of wisdom that only comes with experience written on his face. He was glad to meet a member of the MSA, even a skinny 19 year old, happy we were continuing the tradition, and briefly mentioned how they helped him when his community had expelled him.

…But who was W. Deen Muhammad and why am I writing this on a blog about Ahmadiyya?

To understand who he was, you have to understand the history of the African-American community. By the early 1900s, in the throes of racial injustice and paradoxical increased freedom, the African-American community was searching for its identity. Knowing one’s lineage and ancestral customs is important to a person’s identity but the sharp lash of racial slavery eliminated all but a few remnants. To fill the void, many subcultures, movements and religions arose. Examples include the Moorish Science Temple and the Black Panthers. But the largest and one with the most profound impact on American culture was the Nation of Islam.

The Nation of Islam (NOI) was founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad (herein referred to as Fard). Fard was not an African-American. Even to this day his exact roots are clouded in mystery. But, what we do know is that he was the genesis of the “Nation of Islam”. The faith he created was a mixture of traditional Islam, Moorish Science Temple teachings and his own unique ideas. As I was personally told by a elderly African-American Muslim who used to follow his faith, the emphasis was not on specific beliefs. Instead, people were attracted to it because it was “not the religion of our slave masters” (Christianity) and gave them something to uplifting themselves through. The NOI preached morality, hard work  and community. It helped members stop the cycles of alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, gang violence, and other dysfunctional behavior.

One of the prominent early members was Elijah Muhammad (herein referred to as Elijah). Elijah joined the NOI in 1931 and rose to become the “Minster of Islam” for Detroit.

In 1934, while on a trip to Chicago, Fard completely disappeared. Though many theories exist, to this day no one knows what became of him. Following his disappearance, the movement found a new leader in Elijah. In the absence of Fard, Elijah became the de-facto leader of the Nation of Islam and led the movement forward from 1934 until his death in 1975.

Under Elijah, the movement grew many folds, including many new Temples, the newspaper Muhammad Speaks, a womens’ auxiliary organization, growing financial power and The Fruit of Islam, their security force. Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz رحمه الله) joined the movement during this early period and was instrumental in attracting new members. (Malcolm X would later departed from the NOI and converted to Islam, but was assassinated in 1965.) With a large membership base and increased national recognition, by the ’50s and ’60s the movement was a force to be reckoned with in African-American community.

They did great community work, but what were the beliefs of the NOI? This sums it up:

We believe there is no God but Allah (God) and Muhammad is the Messenger of God. We believe that Allah appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad on July 4, 1930, the long awaited Messiah of the Christians and the Mahdi of the Muslims.

The faith shared many common terms with Islam, such as Allah, Qur’an, Islam, Muslim, Muhammad, etc, but the beliefs were radically different. Tenants included Black Supremacy, that white people were a creation of Yakub, an evil scientist 6,600 years ago and other such quackery. Congregational prayers were held on Sunday, and services resembled American Protestant churches. It had little to do with Islam, other than name.

As the movement grew and members increased, little by little, members became aware of Islam – not Nation of “Islam” – but Islam. This was likely due to early Arab immigration to the US, mostly from Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. To investigate the origins of the faith, Elijah sent his son, Wallace Deen Muhammad, to Egypt to study Islam. He returned to become a Minister but was twice kicked out (ex-communicated) of the NOI for his “Unorthodox beliefs” – or in reality – his orthodox beliefs, specifically, that he did not accept that Fard Muhammad was Allah, and that Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم was the last prophet. He was later strategically readmitted.

In 1975, Elijah Muhammad died. So taken back were the NOI members that some of them were literally waiting for the world to end. At the national NOI conference to decide on the future of the movement, Wallace son of the “prophet”, came on stage, dressed in the Fruit of Islam uniform, and assumed leadership. What the Ministers did not know was that Wallace was now firmly a mainstream Sunni Muslim. One by one, the national minsters pledged allegiance (bay’at) to Wallace, including Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of the NOI. For two years, from 1975 to 1977, Wallace taught Orthodox Islam as the official belief system of the Nation of Islam. He introduced the five pillars, promoted mainstream Islamic belief through the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, introduced ‘Eid al-Fitr as a religious holiday instead of Saviors Day, and even led a delegation on Hajj. None of this was part of the previous NOI. He was taking the NOI from the religion of his father to the religion of Saydinaa Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم.

But with any movement towards Truth there are those who oppose it, which manifested in the person of Louis Farrakhan. In 1981, he revived the roots of the NOI, abandoned Orthodox Sunni Islam, and led the movement back into its original beliefs. This created a split between the communities of Wallace and Louis, as Louis went on to re-found the modern Nation of Islam.

What about Wallace? Allah put Wallace in the right place at the right time for a specific purpose. Wallace founded The World Community of Islam in the West. It was through Wallace that large numbers of NOI members left the beliefs of the NOI and embraced mainstream Islam. He reached out to the immigrant Muslim communities to build bridges and ties, which was unthinkable in the NOI. Wallace took a community deeply entrenched in absolute disbelief, claiming a man was Allah and in a new prophet, and led them to real Islam. This could not have been done by anyone but the son of the “prophet”.

To this day, 10th of Muharram 1433, the largest racial contention of Muslims in the US are not Arab of Desi, but African-American. This is through the work of Wallace Deen Muhammad. Though there are still hard-line believers of original NOI teachings, they are slowly but surely being pulled in the direction of mainstream orthodox Sunni Islam. Louis Farrakhan publicly declared his Shahada, they introduced Salah (Namaz) as Muslims perform it, changed the Nation of Islam’s day of worship from Sunday to Friday, and many other advances. Alhumdu lillah, they are slowly coming our way.

So we thank Allah for his providence. He was very merciful when he guided Wallace to Islam, and through him, guided many others.

What does any of this have to do with the Ahmadiyya…?

In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you came from. When we look at the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم, though he accepted their Islam of the common person, he focused his energy on the leadership. When he went to Ta’if, he spoke to the leaders (which later led to Du’a al-Ta’if). It was the leaders of Aws and Khazraj who accepted Islam and through them the common folk followed suit. It was a leader, Wallace Deen Muhammad, who accepted Islam and through them other NOI members shifted towards the Sunnah.

This is in no way to belittle the commoners who embrace Islam. In the past few years, we have witnessed an increasing number of Ahmadis leaving Ahmadiyya to embrace mainstream Islam. The vast majority silently depart and tell me not to disclose who they are. We are also happy for the likes of Shahid Kamal Ahmad, who started this site, or Sr. “Findings” who manages Cult Girl Confessions. But what we need are more national leaders, more spokesmen, more murabbis, and more missionaries to revert to traditional Islam. They can use their authority and influence to guide their community, if not all at once, then slowly through small hints and suggestions. And this is not without precedent, notable reverts include:

• Hassan bin Mahmood Odeh, Former Director General of the Arabic Section in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community;
• Miklos Molnar, General Secretary of the Ahmadi Jama’at in Hungary;
• Ismail Babatunde Jose, Former President of the Ahmadiyya movement in Nigeria;
• I personally know Jamia Ahmadiyya students and Waqf-e-Nau leaders who accepted mainstream Islam and are slowly and secretly working in their communities;
• And many others

Perhaps one day, even their “khalifah” will have departed from Ahmadiyya to lead his followers towards mainstream Islam, after the example of Wallace Deen Muhammad. Before ‘Umar bin al-Khattab رضى الله عنه accepted Islam, the Muslims were weak and scattered. His conversion gave them strength and courage. May Allah give us an ‘Umar from the Ahmadiyya community.

This takes patience, courage and conviction. Dealing with the stubborn “Desi uncle mentality” can be a challenge. It will start off slow, and be difficulty convincing others. But a breakthrough in a few will result in others joining the fold. And we ask Allah for success.

و صلى الله على سيدنا محمد و على آله و صحبه و سلم

Now Enjoy the Presentation