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OVER THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE JOIN AHMADIYYA MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN PAST YEAR

AHMADIYYA MUSLIM JAMA’AT - SRI LANKA 619/4, Baseline Road, Colombo 9, Sri Lanka.

The three day International Conference of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community held at “Hadeeqathul Mahdi” situated at Green Street, East Worldham, Alton, Hampshire UK. ended on July 27, 2008 in which 40,500 representatives from 84 countries all over the globe participated.

The Members of Parliament from the United Kingdom and some African countries and special representatives of Heads of States attended. The National Amir U.K. Rafiq Hayat introduced the guest speakers of the day.

Speeches by Ahmadi scholars included ‘Importance of

Khilaf (Spiritual Leadership) in Contemporary Society’, ‘Hundred years of Ahmadiyya Khilafat’ and the blessings of Khilafat. Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Present Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community addressed the conference each day on various topics including the annual progress of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at world-wide.

He said that due to the blessings of God Almighty the Community was succeeding in countless ways. The Community had spread to four new countries over the past twelve months which meant that it had established itself in 193 countries. Furthermore the Community had made great effort in re-establishing contact with Ahmadi Muslims who had lost touch. In this way tens of thousands had renewed their oaths. Excluding Pakistan, the Community had over the past year established 593 new local Jama’ats (Community established in local areas within the countries) in different countries of the world. This included 15 new places in Indonesia, a country in which the local Ahmadi Muslims had faced grave persecution during the past year both from the state and from the extreme clerics.

His Holiness went on to report about the continued effort of the Ahmadiyya Community to build new mosques. Each of the mosques built with the purpose of spreading peace. This year the Community had opened 351 new mosques of which 149 had been built from scratch. A new mosque had been built in Calgary, Canada which was the largest mosque in North America. His Holiness reported that such construction was an ongoing project and that later this year a large new mosque was being opened in Bradford. In addition to the new mosques the Community had built 135 Mission Houses for the purpose of spreading its message of ‘Love for All, Hatred for None.’

With regard the vast number of Ahmadi texts, the Community had developed full printing presses in eleven countries which worked under the supervision of Raqeem Press in England. These included printing presses in African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria. In the past year the Holy Qur’an had been translated into four new languages including the Bosnian and Thai languages.

His Holiness then spoke of some of the special incidents that had taken place over the course of the year. He mentioned how many people had written to him to say that they had joined the Ahmadiyya Community on the basis of dreams in which they had seen the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Community, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (peace be upon him). Others had joined by watching MTA, the Community’s worldwide satellite television channel.

The system of Waqf-e-Nau continued to flourish. This was the system set up in 1987 whereby Ahmadi parents would dedicate the lives of their children for the service of Ahmadiyyat – the True Islam. His Holiness said that during the past year 2325 children had joined this scheme which brought the total number of children dedicated to over 37,000.

The ‘Nusrat Jehan’ Scheme was a program that begun in 1970 as a means for the Ahmadiyya Community to help the African Continent develops. Under this scheme the Community had built many hospitals and 510 schools. The Community was also helping to develop the agricultural produce of the African countries. Further it was producing clean water for many villages and providing means for solar energy in a number of different countries.

The climax of the annual report was the announcement by His Holiness that through the sheer Grace of God a total of 354,638 people had joined the Ahmadiyya Community during the past year. These people were spread across 101 countries of the world. Upon hearing these glad tidings the audience begun to spontaneously raise slogans of joy.

The conference also included a world-wide Initiation (Bai’ath) Ceremony that is held every year at the time of Annual Convention in which large numbers of people from different countries gather at some places in their respective countries and then via satellite take an oath of allegiance at the hand of the Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. This historical ceremony was held on Sunday the 27th of July, 2008 (last day of the convention) at 5.30 P.M. local time. Ahmadi Muslims across the country assembled in their mosques situated at Colombo, Negombo, Pasyala, Puttalam and Polonnaruwa and took part in this initiation ceremony via MTA (Muslim Television Ahmadiyya) satellite TV.

The proceedings of the Conference were telecast LIVE by MTA, a free 24 hour satellite TV channel, run by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and were simultaneously translated into several languages.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was founded in 1889 in a small town Qadian, in Punjab, India. Its founder, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) claimed to be the Promised Reformer of the age. Ahmadiyyat stands for the brotherhood of mankind and tries to establish peace on earth through love, persuasion and tolerance. It is a spiritual organization and has no political agenda.

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