India: Kashmir cleric asks govt to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims

From: The Times of India

Kashmir's grand cleric asks govt to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims
M Saleem Pandit, TNN | May 4, 2012, 04.58PM IST


Ahmadiyya is a reformist movement within Islam, founded in British India towards the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmed (1835–1908) of Qadian in Punjab. (Reuters photo)
SRINAGAR: In yet another act of religious extremism, Kashmir's mufti azam (grand cleric) Mufti Muhammad Bashir-ud-din has demanded a legislation to declare the Ahmadi sect of Kashmiri Muslims as "non-Muslims".

The dogmatic demand was unanimously made by the Muslim religious leaders of Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Personal Board in a meeting convened and headed by the grand cleric on May 2, 2012.

Mufti Azam told the TOI that the valley's religious leaders had informed him that a set of people, belonging to the Ahmadi school of thought, were spreading their message through literature in the valley. "Therefore, I convened a meeting of the Ulmas (Islamic scholars) wherein a resolution was adopted asking the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature to pass a bill during the coming summer session declaring Ahmadis as non-mulsims," Mufti Azam Bashir-ud-din said.

The grand cleric said that the Islamic Sharia Council had made it clear that in all parts of the world Qadiyanis or Ahmadis were declared non Muslims. "And they should be declared as non-muslims here as well." He added the Ahmadis were already declared as "non-Muslims" in Pakistan during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's tenure as prime minister.

Ahmadiyya is a reformist movement within Islam, founded in British India towards the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmed (1835-1908) of Qadian in Punjab. Mirza Ghulam Ahmed claimed that he was the divine reformer and the promised Messiah and Mahdi awaited by Muslims. The followers of this school of thought are called as Ahmadis.

The Ahmadi sect is a minority in the Sunni dominated Kashmir valley. According to some estimates, Ahmadis, in the valley, are not more than a few hundred people. The adherents of the Ahmadiyya movement own only one mosque in Kashmir. It is located just adjacent to Inspector General police's office in Srinagar.

Mufti Azam created a furore in the state last year when he summoned several Christian priests and pastors to his sharia court in down town Srinagar for their alleged involvement in conversion of Muslims boys and girls to Christianity. At his orders, the Christian priests and pastors had to quit the valley.