The World Leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V, has been presented with a world peace award for his exemplary leadership and contribution to global peace.
The award was presented by Mr Peter, at the 48th Annual Islamic Conference of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, United Kingdom, on behalf of a Singaporean global peace awardee, Dr Bhupendra Kumar Modi. B. K. Modi is the global chairman of Spice Global, an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Singapore. He was appointed by the United Nation as Coordinator for the Indian subcontinent for the Millennium World Peace Summit. Modi became a citizen of Singapore in 2012 and ranks 23rd in the Forbes list of Singapore’s richest people.
Dr Bhupendra Kumar ModiThe honour was also given sequel to series of letters written by the leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Hazrat Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V, to world leaders on the need to ensure global peace and a lecture delivered of peaceful coexistence under the theme: “God in the 21stCentury,” at a Conference of World Religions in the Guildhall, London on Tuesday, 11th February, 2014.
At the conference, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Spiritual Leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, advocated for universal human rights and global peace. He took the same message of peace to the British Parliament, UK, Capitol Hill, USA, and the European Parliament in Brussels.
According to him “the world has become increasingly divided and restless with hostilities and conflicts ever-present in spite of all the achievements and progress of the past century. The struggle for supremacy of world powers and the spiralling threat of extremism are playing havoc with the world as it lurches perilously from one crisis to the other. In such a scenario, where political solutions appear to be lacking, does religion has anything to offer?
Religion, in his words, is often accused of being the reason rather than the remedy for injustice and unrest and is deemed incapable of providing robust solutions to the complex challenges of the modern world. So can religion respond to the challenge and enable mankind to achieve peace in the world today? Can it deliver peace that is desirable, achievable and sustainable? Can it inspire real progress in the real world Can it offer real hope?” the world leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community remarked.
Hazrat Masroor Ahmad has also written letters to world leaders, urging them to inculcate a true sense of justice and peace in international relations to avoid regional conflicts from engulfing the entire world.
The letters noted that “the rise of atheism and religious extremism has seen God relegated from modern life but there are emerging voices that are advocating with clarity and conviction that it is only by turning back to God and His teachings that mankind can truly tackle the root causes that are undermining world peace”.
In 2004, the leader of the Ahmadiyya community launched the Annual National Peace Symposium which is attended by nearly one thousand people including ministers, parliamentarians, faith leaders, diplomats and other dignitaries.
In 2009, he launched the Annual Ahmadiyya Muslim Prize for the Advancement of Peace. This is an international peace award for an individual or organisation that has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment and service to the cause of peace and humanitarianism.
In the same year, he initiated national peace campaigns comprising of distribution of leaflets promoting the need for peace through greater understanding. In the UK this leaflet has reached four million homes and is increasing day by day. This was supplemented by an international awareness campaign that featured adverts on buses, billboards as well as a large number of interfaith & peace symposia and exhibitions of the Holy Qur’an.
In 2012, in light of the growing global tensions, His Holiness wrote a series of letters to world leaders calling for the peaceful resolution to world conflicts.
He catalogued his peace campaigns in a book In this book, World Crisis and the Pathway to Peace, where he warned the world of the fast approaching dangers and how it can avert disaster and chart a course to peace.