A minority Muslim sect says it still faces persecution from extremists but has praised efforts to stamp out discrimination in south London.

A year ago, this newspaper exclusively revealed shocking examples of Ahmadiyya Muslims, whose main mosque is in Morden, being openly insulted and discriminated by religious bigots who targeted their livelihoods and even their political candidates.

The Ahmadiyya religion does not believe, as most Muslims do, that the prophet Mohammed was the last messenger of Allah – a theological difference so serious it led to Ahmadis declared as non-Muslim heretics in Pakistan.

Last year, 93 Ahmadi worshippers were slaughtered by terrorists while they prayed in mosques in Lahore. One of the victims was Muhammad Ashraf Bilal, a visiting businessman who lived in Sispara Gardens, Southfields.

Parliamentary group set up to investigate hate claims

Since our exposure of the plight of Ahmadiyya Muslims around the world, an All-Party Parliamentary Group was set up and chaired by Mitcham and Morden’s MP, Siobhain McDonagh. Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond is the group’s vice-chairman.

Ms McDonagh said: “I’m sure that without the hard work of the local Guardian in bringing this issue to light, this group may not even have come together to do the important work it does.

“Not only have we had meetings in Parliament, but in the European Parliament too. We’ve met with Ofcom to talk about the censorship of religious broadcasts which promote violence, and we’ve discussed the issues with Foreign Office Minister, Alistair Burt.”

Trouble in Tooting started with conference

The evidence pointed specifically to the Tooting Islamic Centre, where its imam, Suliman Gani, had invited hardline clerics in March 2010 to speak about the danger of the Ahmadiyya Muslim religion spreading in the face of mainstream.

The clerics included Abdur Rehman Bawa from the Khatme Nabuwwat, a organisation will claims to “provide awareness” about the Ahmadiyya religion. At the conference, Mr Bawa urged worshippers not to do business with Ahmadis.

Following that conference, Mr Gani admitted he had pleaded with a halal meat shop owner not to sell his business to an Ahmadi because he believed Ahmadis could not be trusted to sell legitimate halal meat.

There were also leaflets entitled “Deception of the Qadiani” found in Tooting and an Ahmadi butcher won an employment tribunal case in which he was found to have been sacked because he would not renounce his religion.

The Crown Prosecution Service came under criticism from Parliament’s Human Rights Group for not prosecuting the allegations under hate crime laws and its vice-chairman, Eric Lord Avebury, likened the evidence to “the beginnings of the Holocaust”.

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