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EmailAhmadi Muslims in the minority
Letter to the editor, National Post, Dec. 12, 2015
Re: Canary In The Coal Mine, letters to the editor, Dec. 10. After a jihadist attack, an Ahmadi Muslim insists that Islam is a “religion of peace” and extremists are committing inhumane actions in the name of Islam. The Ahmadi Muslim community is a very small group of Muslims, with about 10 million to 20 million adherents worldwide out of 1.6 billion Muslims. They claim to be following the “true Islam,” which is based on peace with others.
The problem is that to Sunni Muslims, Ahmadis are not Muslims, their mosques have been destroyed and their followers killed. In 1974, the Pakistan government introduced a constitutional amendment that declared them to be non-Muslims. Since 1984, they are prohibited from calling themselves Muslims or referring to their faith as Islam. The Saudi government has officially banned Ahmadis from making the hajj.
So although the Ahmadi Muslims preach peace and love and call for dialogue and understanding with non-Muslims, they are considered a fringe group by the majority Sunni community. The Ahmadis do not represent the majority of Muslims and therefore cannot speak for Islam. Too bad for non-Muslims.
Harold Pomerantz, Dundas, Ont.
