Incitement To Murder Against Ahmadi Muslims In Surrey (UK News)

[philosoraptor42]

Preaching Hate In Our Streets
Extremist flyers call for Ahmadi Muslims' murder

Islamic extremists are promoting the murder of evangelical Muslims in Kingston town centre.

A police investigation was launched last month, after police saw leaflets being handed out calling on Muslims to murder Qadiyanis, a derogatory term for Ahmadiyya Muslims who are an evangelical sect of Islam.

It is believed the literature is linked to a terrorist attack in May, in which 92 worshippers were murdered by Taliban militants in Pakistan, where the government officially regards Ahmadiyya Islam as blasphemy.

Having made no arrests in connection with the incident, Kingston police are appealing for witnesses who may have seen the people handing inflammatory literature, outside the Jane Norman store in Clarence Street.

A teenage Ahmadiyya girl who did not want to be named said she was “shaken and scared” after being handed a leaflet written in Urdu saying: “Kill a Qadiyani and doors to heaven will be open to you”.

She said: “I was coming back from shopping and a guy handed me the leaflet. While I read it he asked me to come back. I told him I was an Ahmadi girl and demanded I return his leaflet, but I refused.

He was about 22 or 23 years old and had a long beard.”

A spokesman for Kingston police confirmed there was an ongoing investigation.

He said: “On July 6, we received a report regarding the distribution of literature related to the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith that was deemed offensive.”

Ahmadiyya Muslims, or Ahmadis, differ from mainstream Islam by believing the second coming of the Messiah has already happened and is embodied by their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

Established in 1884, the movement is followed by 160m people in 195 countries and is renowned for its motto: Love for all, hatred for none.

Rafiq Hayat, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community’s national president, said his community was being targeted by an international hate campaign by preachers who communicated in Urdu through leaflets, satellite TV and the internet.

He said: “The perpetrators of this act are Muslims and, while they are certainly not representative of the majority of Muslims in this country, they are creating hatred in society.

“Freedom of speech is one thing, but incitement of hatred is another matter. We want the authorities to nip this in the bud, otherwise this campaign of hatred against Ahmadi Muslims will grow into a threat against other moderate Muslims and indeed the wider society.

“We remain firm to our principles of peace and will continue to respond with patience and prayer.”

Police are appealing for anyone who has been handed similar literature to contact the officer in charge, Detective Constable Steve Parker.

(Source: The Surrey Comet)
(Via The Spittoon)

This is a story from a local paper called the Surrey Comet and relates to events in the area of Kingston. The article is not (currently) on their website, but The Spittoon have helpfully uploaded a scan of the article and I have been good enough to transcribe it for you.

This isn't the first time the paper have written about Ahmadis.

A while ago they had the following email from a Muslim reader "correcting" their mistake:

I would like to clarify a few items that appear to have been written without full facts.

I refer to Page 7 of the Kingston Guardian of August 8, 2002, entitled Golden Moment', where it refers to members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, as being Muslims.

The whole Islamic Community do not recognise the Ahmadis (or Qadiyanis) as Muslims.

It was agreed in Makkah, Saudi Arabia in April 1974, by 144 Muslim representatives from all Muslim countries that the Ahmadis are not Muslims.

In fact, the founder of the Ahmadiyya sect claimed that he was the Messiah. It is an insult to Muslims that the Ahmadi's are referred to as Muslims.

J---- I----

Tolworth

August 21, 2002 10:00

(Blanking out the name was pointless since it is still on their website, but still I wouldn't want to indirectly start circulating someone's name across the internet just because they wrote one stupid letter.)

The Surrey Comet were sensible enough to respond to this email with a full article on the Ahmadi community in Surrey, their contribution to society and their own personal response to accusations that they are not truly Islamic.

The Surrey Comet have also written at least two other articles on the Ahmadi community in the wake of the massacre in Pakistan.
(Source 1)
(Source 2)