United Kingdom’s North Lincolnshire Council’s planning committee has approved plans to build a new mosque in Scunthorpe despite a number of objections from local Muslim groups. The application was passed by a majority verdict. Phil Wallis, head of planning, said the council had received two petitions – one with 55 signatures objecting to the development and one with 499 objecting on the grounds of design concerns about traffic and parking.
The local government on Indonesian Island of Bangka is currently expelling members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, after it issued a letter demanding that they either convert to Sunni Islam or face expulsion. The letter, dated Jan. 5 urged members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the Srimenanti subdistrict, Sungailiat district, to convert to the mainstream Sunni teachings of the Indonesian Muslim majority or face expulsion from the regency. It also stated that JAI (Jammat e Ahmadiyya Indonesia) was forbidden from spreading …
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, yesterday joined members of the Maryland Muslim community at Masjid Bait-us-Samad mosque for a conversation about strategies for overcoming challenges to building cultural awareness and community unity.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has strongly condemned the arrest, detention, and sentencing of Abul Shakoor, an 80-year-old optician, for propagating the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith, which is banned in Pakistan.
Four years ago, Asif Khan took his wife and two children and fled Pakistan, where as an Ahmadiyya Muslim he was part of a heavily persecuted minority group. Yesterday, Mr Khan said he thanked Allah for bringing him to the other side of the world as he celebrated Australia Day among a peaceful sea of red, white and blue at the Masjid Baitul Huda Mosque in Marsden Park in Sydney’s northwest.
When David Morrison saw a group of Muslims flying the Australian flag and having their picture taken at a citizenship ceremony in Canberra yesterday, he walked straight over to them and asked if he could join in. Wearing the Australia Day blue cap and T-shirts declaring “love for all, hatred for none”, the men and children from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Australia were handing out pamphlets expressing their loyalty for the country.
Muslims for loyalty are handing out half a million leaflets across the country in early Australia Day celebrations to end extremism and prejudice. ‘Love for all, hatred for none’ is the motto the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association are hoping to share with fellow Aussies this year, through leaflets adorned with the national flag.
Two Pakistani clerics have come to blows at a meeting of the religious establishment over the fraught issue of the status of Ahmadis, a Muslim sect that hardliners want declared apostates. A scuffle broke out on Tuesday between the two at a gathering of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) when the chairman, Mohammad Khan Sherani, called on the group to consider whether Ahmadis, who are declared non-Muslims by the constitution, should be considered murtads that have rejected Islam.
Time is running out for the beleaguered Ahmadiyya Muslim Community on Bangka Island. Bangka Island’s top elected official, Tarmizi Saat, told a crowd on January 24 that he would ensure the expulsion of all members of the religious minority by February 6. He warnedthat expulsion enforcement measures from Bangka Island, located off the east coast of Sumatra, could begin as early as January 27. Adding to the fear factor for Bangka’s Ahmadiyya is an open letter circulated on January 22 by …
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada condemned the terrorist attack at a university in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. According to reports, four gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked Bacha Khan University in Charsadda today killing at least 19 people including students, teachers and staff members. They also used hand grenades.
“It’s one of the biggest disasters in my lifetime,” said Nudrat Mansoor with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women’s Association. “I was not here to see World War II, but it’s the biggest displacement after that– we want to help as many human beings as possible.” Mansoor is part of a local group of Muslim women who organized a sold out fundraiser Saturday night at the Baitul Hadi Mosque. The money raised will go toward Humanity First, an organization that privately sponsors …
A tiny Indonesian province has banned a minority Islamic sect from conducting religious activities, a move activists say raises concerns over intolerance in the Muslim-majority nation. The move by Bangka-Belitung, made up of two main islands off South Sumatra, is the latest in a series in which religious minorities including Christians and Shi’ite Muslims have faced harassment and complained of a lack of protection.