Of Sacred and Secular
From the Mosque: Bait-ul-Muqeet and the mourning Ahmadiyya community
Religious groups and sects that I rarely ever see and, therefore, never write about exist just out of my comfort zone. I realized that this week when thinking about Gaza and the flotilla and also, while visiting the Bait-ul-Muqeet Mosque for Friday prayers yesterday.
I’ve been reading Stephen Prothero’s latest book “God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run The World And Why Their Differences Matter.” So far, it’s been a great read and a helpful primer on religious differences. I’ve just gotten to the chapter on Islam, and when I read this passage, it rang true, at least for me:
Is Islam a religion of terror? Are Christianity and Islam now engaged in a clash of civilizations? Or do Muslims stand peaceably alongside Jews and Christians as siblings in one tripartite family of religions?
Unfortunately, this crucial conversation rarely advances beyond a ping-pong match of clichés in which some claim that Islam is a religion of peace while others claim that Islam is a religion of war. One side ignores Quranic passages and Islamic traditions that have been used to justify war on unbelievers, while the other ignores Islam’s just-war injunctions against killing women, children, civilians and fellow Muslims (hundreds of whom died in the Twin Towers on 9/11). The reason for all this ignoring is our collective ignorance. We are incapable of reckoning with Islam because we know almost nothing about it.
I told Aziza Faruqi, a member of Austin’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community, something similar to the above passage yesterday. She wrote on Monday to invite me to Friday prayers at the Round Rock mosque. There, Ahmadis were still mourning nearly 100 members of their community killed in attacks on two mosques in Lahore, Pakistan on May 28.
The Ahmadi Community is religious minority group within Islam that believes in a messiah, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who came after the Prophet Muhammad, a fact that separates them from most Muslims. While it is believed that Prophet Muhammad died in 632, the Ahmadis believed their prophet died in 1908. As a result, the minority sect has been persecuted and discriminated against for decades in India and Pakistan, where there are more than 2 million adherents (in America, there are more than 4,000, according to adherents.com).
“We are a small Muslim sect which is persecuted in Pakistan and some other Muslim countries because we believe in the Messiah,” Faruqi said. “We are a peaceful and progressive-minded community with a motto, ‘Love for all, Hatred for none.’”
Faruqi and others that I talked to at the Round Rock mosque believe this is why those killed during Friday prayers in Lahore were targeted, because the Muslim extremists who wanted to send a message knew the Ahmadiyya community would be unarmed. So, Muslims sprayed bullets from their AK-47s from a top a minaret, blew themselves up inside the mosque and killed 94 people.
Maqbool Ahmad told me on Friday that in 1984, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws declared Ahmadis non-Muslims and that it is illegal for Ahmadis to declare themselves Muslim in Pakistan. Those laws protect the perpetrators of crimes like the mosque attacks he said, “because they are protected under the law.”
Even while recounting the bias against Muslims in Pakistan, Ahmad and Iftikhar Naghmi, said that the community here would remain true to the convictions of their faith and pray for their lost loved ones, who they now consider martyrs. They said they would not consider retaliation, which is a contradiction of their faith. “Our youth group will donate blood soon,” Naghmi said, noting that the biggest need in the aftermath of the attacks was blood donation because so much had been shed.
The women in the community echoed that same resolve, as leaders and laypeople alike said prayers asking for strength and understanding in the face of such loss and sadness. Husna Ahmad, 41, lost a first cousin in the attacks. “Our community is like one body so that if one part of the body hurts, we all hurt,” Ahmad said. “The fanatics, they don’t know the Quran. They talk against us and say we deserve death, but all religions are good if they are practiced in their original way.”
Comments
Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our Visitor's agreement. Click here to report comment abuse.
By Hasan
June 10, 2010 8:46 AM | Link to this
The scale of discrimination practiced against Ahmadis is simply mind-boggling. It is simply a grotesque form of modern-day apartheid. When the state itself discriminates against a section of its people and humiliates their religious icons, it takes discrimination to a whole new level.
By Hasan
June 10, 2010 8:44 AM | Link to this
The scale of discrimination practiced against Ahmadis is simply mind-boggling. It is simply a grotesque form of modern-day apartheid. When the state itself discriminates against a section of its people and humiliates their religious icons, it takes discrimination to a whole new level.
By Hasan
June 10, 2010 8:44 AM | Link to this
The scale of discrimination practiced against Ahmadis is simply mind-boggling. It is simply a grotesque form of modern-day apartheid. When the state itself discriminates against a section of its people and humiliates their religious icons, it takes discrimination to a whole new level.
By Zebr
June 7, 2010 7:12 PM | Link to this
Great thoughts and interesting facts. Its just a matter of extending one’s hand to experience so many diversities around. And indeed, this counts as a strong step in building bridges at a time when we need many more. It is surprising, however to see the hate mongerers among the commentators, one wonders if there is anyone who actually takes the time to listen to, or care about anyone anymore. Maybe the world is now a satirical soapbox theatre and all the good people have taken to be silent mimes. Maybe we need take the step you took and actually test the water some too.
By Alex H.
June 7, 2010 1:07 PM | Link to this
The Muslims I have met in Austin are good people. I worked for one for several years and I am an Orthodox Jew. We had no problems. Other Muslims I have met in Austin have been friendly and good. I have trouble squaring what I know in Austin to what I see happening around the world in the name of the same religion. It must be like how Catholics and Protestants felt when there was so much fighting in Ireland. There seemed to be a difference. What they did in Ireland did not spill into the USA. If it had, I would have expected some accounting by those groups in the USA but I would not have expected them to suddenly jump up and join the violence. Each religion has had their violent episodes and each had to find a way to square up their religious edicts with reality. As a Jew, I’ve done that. Christians are well on their way to doing it and Muslims are lagging. No surprise. They are the the youngest religion.
By deed
June 6, 2010 12:23 AM | Link to this
Oh joshunda al-talibani, how sweet it must be securing your place among us—the infidels. Hope you get your wish soon, so you can just be at home barefooted and having kids, cause you won’t be able to drive, little thing…hope you get it.
By SJ
June 5, 2010 11:27 PM | Link to this
“Islam has bloody borders.” — Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs magazine, Summer 1993
By ThinkCrimson,Horns!
June 5, 2010 9:41 PM | Link to this
Ah, yes, the weekly muslim apologetic installment from Joshunda.
Great picture, Joshunda! Such a diverse group. Of the eighteen congregants in the photo, I count eighteen dark-skinned men wearing funny hats. Celebrate diversity! COEXIST! proclaims the popular bumper sticker. It’s on all the Priuses these days.
“in 1984, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws declared Ahmadis non-Muslims and that it is illegal for Ahmadis to declare themselves Muslim in Pakistan”. You can’t make this stuff up. 1984. Ironic that the blasphemy laws were passed in that year. How about this:
“in 1984, America’s blasphemy laws declared the Amish non-Christians and that it is illegal for the Amish to declare themselves Christian in America”.
And this:
“the Episcopalian extremists who wanted to send a message knew the Amish community would be unarmed. So, Episcopalians sprayed bullets from their AK-47s from a top a steeple, blew themselves up inside the church and killed 94 people”
Maybe that would draw your attention, Joshunda, in your dogged pursuit of “Religious groups and sects that I rarely ever see and, therefore, never write about exist just out of my comfort zone”
By TXatheist2
June 5, 2010 5:47 PM | Link to this
“…but all religions are good if they are practiced in their original way” Yikes, killing for working on the sabbath, adultery or for taking god’s name in vain would make society very barbaric and I’m glad we ignore most of the 10 commandments in the 21st century. You are naive if you think having ‘no other gods before me’ would have allowed islam to be invented. Thank you Enlightenment Era. And on a lighter note do the Ahmadis think Joseph Smith was a prophet or has anyone told the mormons Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet?
By Lubna Qureshi
June 5, 2010 5:16 PM | Link to this
Thank you Joshunda for a very well written article! I admire you to come forward and share the pain of the grieving community by spreading the word out. I just wanted to make a clarification that Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes in Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the last law bearing prophet and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the Promised Messiah of the latter days. The Promised Messiah founded the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in 1889 and passed away in 1908 leaving behind an ever growing community that, at present, spans to 180 countries.
Lubna Qureshi Interfaith Coordinator
Ahmadiyya Muslim Women’s Association, Austin