Intolerance among Kerala Ahmadis

[This is the fourth article in the series on "Kerala Ahmadis and the New Mujaddid", critically examining the responses of Kerala Ahmadi leadership towards the new Mujaddid Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius and his disciples in India, from among the Kerala Ahmadis who joined the Divine Manifestation]. 

In a recent opinion piece published in a major newspaper, Ifthikar Ahmed Sahib, an Ahmadi Professor in Kerala, underscored the need for giving space to dissenting ideas and alternative perspectives. He states: “The core aspect for all the material and spiritual ideologies is to look at dissenting perspectives with due respect and to deal with differences of opinions by engaging in productive dialogue. And the mental broadness to assimilate diverging opinions is precisely the corner stone of any democratic polity”. The Professor, then, went on to illustrate his point with reference to the decline of liberal values in Kerala society.

Is the Ahmadiyya Community an exception to this rule? Does their practice match up to what they preach? Do they show tolerance and a desire to engage with a diverging perspective from theirs? Or do they betray anger and hatred instead?

Mujaddidiyat: Three Ahmadis, Three Views!

[This article is the third in the series on Kerala Ahmadis and the New Mujaddid, critically examining the response of Kerala Ahmadiyya leadership to the coming of a Mujaddid in the new Century and the establishment of the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam, Kerala in 2010.  The previous installments were published here on May 14 & 15, 2011].

"My community will not agree on misguidance"-   Prophet Muhammad (sa) 

The senior leadership of the Ahmadiyya Jamaat has spoken. The Naib Nazir A’la Maulana Muhammad Umar Sahib is convinced that Ahmadiyya Khilafat is the permanent institution till the Day of Judgement. Man elected/ selected Khulafa may have erred on the doctrine and practice of Islam in the past. But the Ahmadiyya Khulafa are infallible human beings, incapable of delivering injustice in administrative matters nor can they move away from Sahih Al Islam through their pronouncements. All evidences to the contrary should be buried and ignored!

A Response to Maulana Umar Sahib

[This article is the second part of the series on 'Kerala Ahmadis and the New Mujaddid'. The first part was published yesterday, May 14, 2011 and can be accessed here. The series of articles analyses the strategies deployed by the Ahmadiyya leadership to put out the Light of Allah in the form of the new Mujaddid in Mauritius and his disciples in Kerala].   

Maulana Muhammad Umar Sahib is currently the Naib Nazir A’la, Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya, Qadian. He is one of the leading scholars of the Indian Ahmadiyya Jamaat and among the first to officially respond to the coming of a Mujaddid in our times. Soon after the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam was formed and legally registered as an organization in Kerala, he wrote an article entitled “Khilafat and Mujaddidiyat” in the December 2010 issue of Sathyadoothan,  the official Ahmadiyya Journal. In spite of his profound learning and remarkable scholarship, the Maulana Sahib has come up with a deeply disturbing argument.  In the editorial abstract of the article, it is written: “The coming of Mujaddidin is irrelevant because the Khilafat system established by the Mahdi Massih is thriving”.(Sathyadoothan, p.13).