Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Ahmadiyya Heresy

Islamic spokesmen like to represent their religion as a monolith — the frequently-cited “1.3 billion Muslims” who rise up as one at each new infidel outrage — but the reality is somewhat more nuanced. Offshoots and revised versions of Islam are considered heresies by the mainstream, yet they persist.

The heretics are punished whenever they appear, whether they are violent, as are as the Kharijis, the Isma’ilis, and of course the Shi’a, or peaceful, such as the Baha’is and the Ahmadiyya.

Patrick Sookhdeo, in his book Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam, gives this brief description of the Ahmadiyya sect (p. 195):

Mirza Ghulam AhmadA generally non-violent interpretation of jihad is held by the Ahmadiyya sect (considered apostates by other Muslims, and regarded as non-Muslims in Pakistan where they are severely persecuted). Their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) rejected violent jihad as unnecessary in “a time of peace and security” such as India was enjoying under British rule. However they do permit fighting in self-defence, to punish aggressors, and to ensure freedom to convert to Islam — hence the raising of a volunteer corps of Ahmadis to fight in Kashmir alongside the Pakistani army after Pakistan’s independence in 1947.

The following account from the Daily News of Sri Lanka serves to illustrate how heretical the followers of Ahmad are from the Sunni point of view:
- - - - - - - - -
As promised in the above verse of the Holy Quran, after the demise of the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (Promised Messiah and Mahdi), a system of Caliphate (Khilafat) was instituted in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat on May 27, 1908, which is similar to the Pious Caliphate (Khilafat-i-Rashida) that followed the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, under divine command founded the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in March 23, 1889, and began to accept initiation into the Jama’at. In 1890, under Divine Revelation he claimed to be the Promised Messiah as well as Imam Mahdi. He also claimed to be a subordinate Prophet of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) commissioned by Allah to serve the religion of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).

To proclaim himself not just the Mahdi, but an actual prophet, a successor to Mohammed himself, put Ahmad well beyond the pale of orthodox Islam. No wonder his followers have been persecuted.

The Ahmadis are observing the centenary of their faith this year. The celebration of the event in London went off without a hitch, but the same cannot be said of Pakistan. According to Asia News:

The Pakistani government has prohibited the Ahmadiyya community of Rabwa, one of the largest in the world, from celebrating the great feast of khilafat: this is the system of succession of Islamic prophets, and is considered heretical by Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Federal police agents interrupted the celebrations, and put the promoters of the initiative under house arrest.

This is confirmed to AsiaNews by Saleem-ud-din, spokesman for the community, who says: “The agents came and prohibited us from marching, community meals, even from using fireworks. This is nothing but the latest violation of human rights in Pakistan”. Anthony Nadeem, a member of the Pakistan human rights commission, confirms: “what has taken place constitutes a serious violation of the declaration of human rights, and of the national constitution”.

Nadeem, who visited Rabwa to collect eyewitness reports, recounts: “the police arrested Mirza Younas, a local merchant, because he was selling coloured banners and hats with blessings for the centenary”. Other abuses of this kind have been seen all over the area, but now the Ahmadiyya community will seek to obtain the release of its members. None of those arrested, in fact, has been charged with anything.

The Ahmadiyya claim to be Muslim, but they do not recognise Mohammed as the last prophet: for this reason, they are considered heretics, and suffer severe violence and ostracism on the part of fundamentalists in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. The Pakistani community is composed of about three million members, most of whom live in Punjab.

If Islam were a peaceful, tolerant, open-minded faith — as its spokesman would have us believe — the Ahmadis would be seen as harmless cranks, and would pose no more threat to the larger community than the Quakers do to Christianity.

But Islam can brook no deviation from the True Path. Those who veer from the way of the Prophet will only put themselves at risk.


Hat tip: insubria.

15 comments:

Beach Girl said...

My knowledge of the internal workings of the "sects" of Islam is not extensive but I am learning that many sects exist - and what we as Westerners do not know is that the major factions, at least, are fighting for supremacy and have been since Big Mo's death - to credit Dymphna with coining a name.

The "civil" wars we are told about in Iraq are not like the only "civil war" we can relate to. They are "holy wars" pitting Muslims against Muslims. I don't see any "peaceful, tolerant, open-mindedness" in this ideology and concur with Fjordman that Islam is not compatible with Western Civilization at all. We are weakened every time we seek to pacify or appease them whether it is CAIR here at home or the Mullahs of Iran.

Because the Ahmadis, by their way of life, would offer a life of peace, they and "believers" like them simply cannot be allowed to exist. They are too much of a threat. Better to keep many of the people in poverty and fill them with hatred toward the Great Satan than to give them a chance for peace.

Islam could do with a "reformation" but who will be their Martin Luther and live long enough to tell about it?

Diamed said...

Considering atheism only stopped being punished in the 1800's, it's obvious no religion can last very long without persecution and violence. Atheism is the natural end state of mankind and the more freedom/prosperity people have, the more atheist the country becomes. Islam is just doing what it takes to survive. Christianity hasn't thrived under freedom of speech, religion, etc, it's just imploding. The USA is the only exception, and it's sure to be just a matter of time for us too. I wonder if people would be so quick to condemn Islam if they understood the implications of accepting modernity?

Not only atheism, but drug use, crime, broken homes, below replacement birth rates, divorce, fine arts morphing into rap and pornography, the worship of mediocrity and victimology. . .perhaps before we insist on Islam reforming to be just like us, we should reform ourselves to be something worth mimicking.

VinceP1974 said...

>Considering atheism only stopped being punished in the 1800's, it's obvious no religion can last very long without persecution and violence

Nope. What that means is that only the Judeo-Christian value of individual dignity and the right to one's conscience permitted atheism to dwell with in it.

After 2 World Wars and the Cold War, the Civilization in Europe is exhausted. Not one European has a positive birth rate within its native ethnic group.

What means is by the end of teh Century, Europe will be an extension of the Islamic Middle East.

Where will you atheists be then? Please stay the hell away from the US.

randian said...

We should not forget that what the Ahmadis want from the Sunni majority is not something they themselves would offer to a Jew or Christian. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

FluffResponse said...

Article on the Ahmadiyya

Profitsbeard said...

There is nothing in the Koran that forbids any further prophets appearing with supplemental messages.

This prohibition comes from the non-sacred Hadiths. (Sayings by other people about Mohammad.)

So, nothing in technical Islam (since only the Koran is the "word of Allah") keeps another prophet from arising from within the Ummah to give refreshing revelations from the deity.

But the dogmatic, theocratic power mongers of Mohammadism have decided to freeze their faith at 600 A.D. and paralyze their people forever.

Utilizing the non-sanctified Hadithic sayings to prop up their murderous and dead-ended regime of "holy" terror.

Diamed-

Your analysis of the self-admitted shortcomings of the West, and making them some kind of self-defeating reason for Muslims remaining within the far-worse system of intolerant Islam,
are logically untenable.

You need to read Arthur Koestler's examination of the flawed misconception in your thinking.

You can find it in his book "Bricks To Babel", on page 240, entitled: "The Seven Deadly Fallacies".

Yours would be the second "-the soul-searching fallacy".

(The kind of 'morally-levelling' thinking that equates putting panties on the heads of prisoners at Abu Ghraib with slicing off Nick Berg's head on camera.)

Zenster said...

From the Wolfgang Bruno linked by FluffResponse: The Ahmadiyya movement was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1889. He taught that jihad “by the sword” had been replaced by jihad “of the pen,” and wanted to synthesize all religions under the banner of Islam.
[emphasis added]

That, to me, smacks of the usual Muslim triumphalism. Being anything but a Muslim under the “banner of Islam” usually amounts to a fate equal to or worse than death. It is precisely the triumphalist aspect of Islam—in combination with an all too frequent propensity for violence—that requires viewing it as a monolithic entity despite whatever minor subsets of its dogma may exist.

They also believe that the Koran contains no abrogations.

Which can be taken to mean that the Ahmadis still buy into a lot of the Koran’s discriminatory practices and racist hate-mongering. Too much of the Koran is irrational philosophical filth for me to be very impressed. Do Ahmadi women still have to go about veiled and escorted by a male family member? Are Ahmadi adulterers still stoned to death? Are Ahmadi men still allowed to beat their women? What are Ahmadi views on kitman and taqiyya? Even a single "yes" answer to any of these questions puts Ahmadi culture into the category of barbarians.

Randian: We should not forget that what the Ahmadis want from the Sunni majority is not something they themselves would offer to a Jew or Christian. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Another fine example of how Islam swallows it cognitively dissonant camels whole whilst choking at every turn on resonable gnats.

Diamed said...

I'm not saying Abu Ghraib makes the west no better than Islam, yes it would be silly to say so, but consider the things I really did list.

Our current birth rates are suicidal. If left to ourselves we would simply vanish off the face of the earth. Our immigration policy is suicidal, if left to ourselves we would simply vanish off the face of the earth. Our worship of the victim, the loser, the weakest link and condemnation of the winner, the conqueror, the strongest pillar is suicidal, if left to ourselves we will become an idiocracy/dhimmocracy/cowardville, and then promptly vanish off the face of the earth.

What fault can you point to in Islam that matches any of those three? Islam has lasted for 1400 years and is spreading all over the globe. So whatever they're doing, it must be right. And whatever we're doing, it must be wrong, because we're going to die! Go extinct! Join homo erectus and the mastadon! I'm not magnifying the faults of our culture and pooh-poohing those of Islam, you're doing the opposite and magnifying Islam's faults while pooh-poohing our own. The situation is truly dire, and we are whistling to our graves, chatting about human rights violations in pakistan and tibet while the ship sinks beneath us.

Zara said...

"Love for all hatred for none"is the motto of the Ahmadiyya msuslim mmission and islam means "peace'it is the backward so-called muslims who have soiled the name of this religion by imalgimating their own cultural values in it. Due to that there is an 'islam phobia'going on in many countries and wrong image of this religion. Belief in all phrofets and in both old nad new testament of the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran is the base, but it is only the Ahmadi muslims who do that. The concept of equality between the genders inclusive the powerful rights of women, civilized bahviuos , tolerance, broadmined thinking, using a pleasnt voice all the time, contro of anger, keep aquiring knowledge, kindess to animals etc are some of the pointers whish the holy Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) emphasied on. the prophet Jesus ( peace be upon him ) had the power to heal his fellow human beimgs.

Both World Wars happened btween the so-called Chritian counries and the cruelties dished out to the Jews. That was violent and what the socalled super powers are doing to the harmless people in the Middle East in the name of religion. No Prohet ahs preached that. that is the greediness of western cultures, to hold power over the world. that is gainst peace and the Torah, Bible and Quran. so people grow op! And do try 'love for al htred for noen'and true humnity. surely thats why th world was created.

Zara said...

"Love for all hatred for none"is the motto of the Ahmadiyya muslim mission and islam means "peace'it is the backward so-called muslims who have soiled the name of this religion by imalgimating their own cultural values in it. Due to that there is an 'islam phobia'going on in many countries and wrong image of this religion. Belief in all prophets and in both old and new testament of the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran is the treu basic necessity of life itself, but it is only the Ahmadi muslims who do that. The concept of equality between the genders inclusive the powerful rights of women, civilized bahaviour , tolerance, broadmindedness, using a pleasant voice all the time, control of anger, keep aquiring knowledge, kindess to animals etc are some of the pointers whish the holy Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) emphasied on. the prophet Jesus ( peace be upon him ) had the power to heal his fellow human beimgs. The other holy prophets had thie own special continuity of God ( our Lord; Allah!) message to us.

Both World Wars happened between the so-called Christian countries and the cruelties dished out to the Jews. That was violent and what the so-called super powers are doing to the harmless people in the Middle East in the name of religion. No Prophet ahs preached that. that is the greediness of western cultures, to hold power over the world Nonyrue Jew, Chritian or Mulsim would ever tyranize like that. that is against peace and the Torah, Bible and Quran. So people grow op and you as well Baron Bodissey! And do try 'love for all hatred for noen'"and true humnity Lo behold it does truley work!! Surely thats why the universe was created.

Zara said...

Beachgirl you have aptly proved that you are in 'blissful'ignorance of the REAL Islam. You have hit the nail on the head- that is what the problem is going on. Why dont you do a favour to yourself and gather genuine knowledge about Islam and Ahmadiyya Community ?
Then speak up. So you are all for a true Hitler-like treatemtt to be meted out to human beings?
Why are you so full of hatred? You neeed a doese of "love for all hatred for none' yourself. trust me it does wonders to your soul!

Zara said...

Beliefs of Ahmadi Muslims (which are very badly misunderstood.):

Before the advent of Islam women, as a class, enjoyed no statutory rights. Islam is the only religion which established a perfect body of precepts - giving full protection to the rights of women, making them equals of men, both in the spiritual and religious spheres of life, giving them an independent position, granting them proprietary rights, and making their responsibilities and rights as part of the divine law.


16:98 Whoso acts righteously, whether male or female, and is a believer, We will surely grant him a pure life; and We will surely bestow on such their reward according to the best of their works.

4:125 But whoso does good works, whether male or female, and is a believer, such shall enter Heaven, and shall not be wronged even as much as the little hollow in the back of a date-stone.

33:36 Surely, men who submit themselves to God and women who submit themselves to Him, and believing men and believing women, and obedient men and obedient women and truthful men and truthful women, and men steadfast in their faith and steadfast women, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their chastity and women who guard their chastity, and men who remember Allah much and women who remember Him -- Allah has prepared for all of them forgiveness and a great reward.

40:41 Whoso does evil will be requited only with the like of it; but whoso does good, whether male or female, and is a believer -- these will enter the Garden; they will be provided therein without measure.

2:229 And the divorced women shall wait concerning themselves for three courses; and it is not lawful for them that they conceal what Allah has created in their wombs, if they believe in Allah and the Last Day; and their husbands have the greater right to take them back during that period, provided they desire reconciliation. And they (the women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in equity; but men have a rank above them. And Allah is Mighty, Wise.

2:230 Such divorce may be pronounced twice; then, either retain them in a becoming manner or send them away with kindness. And it is not lawful for you that you take anything of what you have given them (your wives) unless both fear that they cannot observe the limits prescribed by Allah. But, if you fear that they cannot observe the limits prescribed by Allah, then it shall be no sin for either of them in what she gives to get her freedom. These are the limits prescribed by Allah, so transgress them not; and whoso transgresses the limits prescribed by Allah, it is they that are the wrongdoers.

Zara said...

The Promised Messiah (as) Hazrat Mirza Gulam Ahmad said:

"It is desirable that compassion for all mankind should be your principle, and your hands and tongues and notions in your hearts should avoid all foul schemes, rebellious manners, and breach of trust. Fear Allah and worship Him with purity of heart, and desist cruelty, trespass, embezzlement, bribes, defrauding others, and favoritism. Avoid bad company. Divert your eyes from covetousness, and save your ears from listening to slander, and never think of causing damage to any religion, or a nation, or a tribe, or any human being. Become true counsel to everyone. It is desirable that rebellious and evil people, people of bad conduct, and wicked people should never be in your company. Avoid every sin and try to gain every virtue. Your hearts should be free of deceit, and your hands should be clean of any cruelty, and your eyes should be clean of any impurity, and there should never be any plan of evil or rebellion nurtured in you.” (Kashful Ghata; Roohani Khazain, Vol.14, p.187)

Anonymous said...

Okay, Zara, you've convinced me. I just put a tablecloth over my head.

Zara said...

Thank you latté island! I appreciate that & God Bless! The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a religious organization, international in its scope, with branches in over 189 countries in Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. This is the most dynamic denomination of Islam in modern history, with worldwide membership exceeding tens of millions.

The Ahmadiyya Community was established in 1889 by Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) in a small and remote village, Qadian, in the Punjab, India. He claimed to be the expected reformer of the latter days, the Awaited One of the world community of religions (The Mahdi and Messiah). The Community he started is an embodiment of the benevolent message of Islam -- peace, universal brotherhood, and submission to the Will of God -- in its pristine purity. Hadhrat Ahmad proclaimed Islam as the religion of man: "The religion of the people of the right path" (98:6)
With this conviction, the Ahmadiyya Community, within a century, has reached the corners of the Earth. Wherever the Community is established, it endeavors to exert a constructive influence of Islam through social projects, educational institutes, health services, Islamic publications and construction of mosques, despite being bitterly persecuted in some countries. Ahmadi Muslims have earned the distinction of being a law-abiding, peaceful, persevering and benevolent community.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam was created under divine guidance with the objective to rejuvenate Islamic moral and spiritual values. It encourages interfaith dialogue, and diligently defends Islam and tries to correct misunderstandings about Islam in the West. It advocates peace, tolerance, love and understanding among followers of different faiths. It firmly believes in and acts upon the Qur'anic teaching: "There is no compulsion in religion." (2:257) It strongly rejects violence and terrorism in any form and for any reason.