Source: MEMRI.ORG: November 13, 2011 A visitor at the Koran exhibition in Delhi (image courtesy: Roznama Ummat)
In September 2011, Ahmadiyya Jamaat India held what was to be a three-day exhibition, from September 23-25, on the Koran and Islam’s message at the Constitution Club in New Delhi. However, the exhibit was closed down on the second day, following a strong protest by a group of Islamic clerics and Muslim legislators.[1] The protesters’ main arguments were that a distorted translation of Koran, especially the verses relating to the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ, was distributed at the exhibition, and that followers of the Ahmadiyya Jamaat do not believe that Muhammad was the last prophet of God.
In several Muslim countries, especially in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the Ahmadiyya Jamaat has been legally declared to be non-Muslim. The followers of Ahmadiyya Jamaat are pejoratively dismissed by Islamic clerics as Ahmadis or Qadianis – after the town of Qadian in northern India where the community’s spiritual leader Mirza Ghulam Ahmad began his teachings in the 19th century. In Pakistan, Ahmadis are banned from referring to themselves as Muslims and are not allowed to use Islamic symbols and expressions.
The clerics and protesters who forced the New Delhi police to shut down the exhibition also accused the ruling Congress party of India, the Israeli Embassy, and the governments of India and Israel of supporting the Ahmadi Muslims’ religious campaign across the world. A detailed report following the cancellation of the exhibition in New Delhi, in the Urdu-language Pakistani newspaper Roznama Ummat, stated that “the Ahmadiyya Jamaat is trying to enhance their impact and reach among Muslims in India under the aegis of the Indian government and the support of the Israeli Embassy, and under which the conspiracy of the Koran exhibition was hatched…”
Following are excerpts from the Roznama Ummat report:[2]
“The Prayer Leader of the Historic Imperial Mosque of Delhi [Jama Masjid], Maulana Syed Ahmad Bukhari, Had Warned the Police of Grave Consequences If the Qadianis’ International Campaign to Befool Muslims Was Not Stopped”
“At a conference in Delhi, verses regarding the end of prophethood [on Islam’s Prophet Muhammad] and Jesus Christ from the distorted translation of the Koran to suit the Qadiani faith were being distributed among the Muslims, with the support of the Congress party and the Israeli government. The [Indian] government was forced to suspend the conference after strong protest by Muslims of all sects.
“The minority Ahmadi organization, which does not believe in the end of prophethood [of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad], alleged… that Muslims created troubles in organizing the exhibition of Koran and demanded to close down the exhibition through which they were trying to extend a program for international propagation for understanding the Koran. It should be noted here that the Ahmadiyya organization, which organized the exhibition at the Constitution Club in New Delhi, has been declared a non-Muslim minority in most Muslim countries because of its belief regarding the finality of the prophethood. This so-called exhibition of Koran was closed down on the second day after strong protest by Muslims and Ulama [Islamic clerics] of India.
“It is also important [to note] that Indian police and administrative officials attempted to continue the exhibition by hoodwinking Muslim leaders. However, they had to bow down before the protestors. According to reports from Delhi, the prayer leader of the historic imperial mosque of Delhi [Jama Masjid], Maulana Syed Ahmad Bukhari, had warned the police of grave consequences if the Qadianis’ international campaign to befool Muslims was not stopped in India. The Indian police commissioner contacted the prayer leader of the Jama Masjid, urging to him to stay home and not to come out to protest, and he was falsely assured that the exhibition of Koran by the Ahmadiyya Jamaat India had been called off.
“But the fact is that at the same time as police officers were assuring Maulana Syed Ahmad Bukhari about the closure of the exhibition organized by the minority group Ahmadis, the exhibition was underway. On the other hand, dozens of faithful youths andUlama were present outside the exhibition [venue] to stop people from going inside and to tell them about the open fraud of the Qadiani Jamaat. This was objected to by the Qadiani organizers. The prayer leader of Jama Masjid of New Delhi Syed Ahmad Bukhari, Syed Yahya Bukhari of the Jama Masjid United Forum, former legislator [from Delhi] Shoaib Iqbal, Dr. Mohammad Hasan of All India Minorities Front and many others were among the protestors.”
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