The Light 2018 08 August

August 2018 The
Light 7
The UK
Parliament
Debate on the
persecution of Ahmadis, 24 May 2018
and our comments
by Zahid Aziz
A fairly lengthy debate was held in the
House of Commons of the UK Parliament on this
subject on 24 May 2018. The transcript of this
debate is available on the website of the UK Parliament
(link to debate transcript).
Shortly afterwards, I composed and sent a
letter along with a statement, on behalf of the
Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, to every Member
of Parliament who spoke in the debate.
Their names are as follows: Siobhain McDonagh
(Labour), Seema Malhotra (Labour), Tanmanjeet
Singh Dhesi (Labour), Tom Brake (Liberal
Democrat), John Spellar (Labour), Sir Edward
Davey (Liberal Democrat), Justine Greening
(Conservative), Stephen Hammond (Conservative),
Paul Scully (Conservative), Zac Goldsmith
(Conservative), Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist),
Patrick Grady (Scottish Nationalist), Liz
McInnes (Labour), and Mark Field (Conservative)
who is the Minister for Asia and the Pacific
responding to the debate on behalf of the government.
Members of Parliament are not obliged to
reply to anyone who is not one of their constituents.
So it was not surprising that no reply was
received, except for a formal one from the Minister.
My covering letter is as below. (For the
group which we usually refer to as the Qadiani
or the Rabwah Jamaat, I have used the term
“Morden-based” Ahmadiyya community, as the
Morden area of London is the location of their
headquarters.)
The Letter:
I am writing to you because you spoke in the
Parliamentary debate on 24 May 2018 on the
I Shall Love All Mankind.
persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community.
I belong to a community of Ahmadis, known
as the Lahore Ahmadiyya, which has been in existence
since 1914. It differs in certain beliefs
from the community based at Morden, the
group which was mentioned in your debate.
We are also declared as non-Muslims by the
1974 amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan,
and are mentioned by our separate name
in that amendment. We are subject to the same
level of persecution and intolerance in Pakistan
and elsewhere as the Ahmadiyya followers of
the Morden-based community.
I was involved, as translator, in a civil court
case in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1985, in
which our community of Ahmadis successfully
obtained the judgment that Ahmadis are Muslims,
and have all the rights pertaining to Muslims,
and to call them "unbelievers" is defamatory.
(See www.ahmadiyya.org/sa-case/intro.htm
for full details.)
I am attaching herewith a more detailed
statement explaining how the opposition to the
Ahmadiyya Movement can be effectively tackled
by establishing better relations with the general
Muslim community.
I would end by pointing out that our Lahore
Ahmadiyya community for more than fifty
years, from 1913 to 1968, ran the Muslim Mission
at the Woking Mosque in Surrey. During
that time, this Mission was the national centre
of Islam in Britain, it represented the general
UK Muslim community of all persuasions, and it
advised the government on matters relating to
Islam. We also published in 1917 in the UK the
first English translation of the Quran, with explanatory
notes, by a Muslim, Maulana Muhammad
Ali, to be available in the West.
Thank you for reading the attached statement.
With best regards,
Zahid Aziz, Dr.