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22 June 2008

Houston: Muslims threaten publisher for describing heretical Islamic sect as Muslims

The Ahmadiyyas are a sect considered heretical by mainstream Muslims (not least because they reject violent jihad), and are consequently often persecuted in Muslim countries. And now, courtesy of our mad failure to


immigration from Muslim countries despite the fact that no attempt is even made to determine the attitudes toward jihad and Islamic supremacism of the Muslims entering the country (and such efforts would be extraordinarily difficult anyway, although a screening process would at least allow for prosecution and deportation of Muslims who renounced Sharia principles when entering the country and then agitated for them once here), we see this ancient hatred imported into the United States.

"Publisher draws criticism from Muslims: Coverage of sect by Urdu weekly is an insult to faith, some residents say," by Purva Patel for the Houston Chronicle, June 21 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Pakistan Times publisher Sheikh Najam Ali has been looking over his shoulder every day for a month since running an ad that proved controversial in the local Muslim community.

The ad, announcing a local Ahmadiyya celebration and describing the faith as Muslim, prompted death threats from anonymous callers, cancellations from advertisers and the removal of his papers in bulk from various distribution sites, he said.

The ad and subsequent coverage of the event has drawn criticism from some Muslims who say Ali has insulted them by giving authenticity to a sect that they consider non-Muslim.

"I had no idea there would be this kind of reaction" said Ali, whose free Urdu weekly has a circulation of 15,000 in the Houston area.

Members of the Ahmadiyya faith, an estimated 70 million worldwide, follow Islam's main tenets.

But contrary to mainstream Muslims, they don't recognize Muhammad as the final prophet. Instead, they believe another prophet followed in the 19th century named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who came in the spirit of Christ to revive the religion of Islam, said Mohammed Zafarullah, a local imam for Ahmadiyya followers.

Established in 1889 in Punjab, India, the faith is considered non-Muslim by Pakistan's constitution and heretical by some Muslims.

[...]

The Pakistan Times isn't the first Urdu publication to be targeted in the U.S., says the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Last year, the publisher and editor of the Urdu Times as well as the editor in chief of the Pakistan Post, both based in New York, received threats for their coverage of alleged criminal activities by Pakistani-Americans living in New York City and opinion pieces by Jewish authors.

[...]

Advertiser Amer Zaheer, owner of a vitamin company called Herbal Pharma, canceled his ads via e-mail.

"My suggestion to you is pray to Allah to forgive you and guide you not to commit such a sin in (sic) future," Zaheer's e-mail reads. He declined to comment. [...]

Those against the ads are displaying their lack of tolerance for other faiths, said Rodwan Saleh, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston.

He noted that the newspaper was within its legal rights to run the ad and news story.

"In America, everybody has a right to exist and worship," Saleh said. "What difference does it make if the Ahmadiyya group came and claimed whatever they claimed and asked to be part of the mainstream? What if this was a Jewish group or a Buddhist group?"

 

"In America, everybody has a right to exist and worship." How long will that last, if no one stands up to this sort of thing? What is Saleh doing within the Islamic Society of Greater Houston to combat the attitudes of those who have issued these threats?

POSTED BY / http://www.jihadwatch.org/

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