Source: The Baltimore Jewish Times

By Neil Rubin

One of the most traveled intersections in the heavily Jewish Upper Park Heights / Pikeville corridor is now the home to a mosque of the small local community of an international Muslim group that preaches universal peace.

The Ahmaddiya Muslims bought the roughly 4-acre property at 7501 Park Heights Ave. — formerly known as Slade Mansion and most recently an assisted living home — earlier last month.

The group’s Baltimore congregation — one of 70 nationwide — has about 40 families, according to Rabbi Andrew Busch of the Baltimore Hebrew congregation, a 1,300 membership unit Reform temple across the street from the mosque site.

The local group is led by Dr. Agha Khan, a neurosurgeon based at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, a historically Jewish hospital, and head of Mid-Atlantic Neuro Surgical.

“Right from the beginning, because of his involvement with Sinai, he knew he needed to have some discussions with leadership in the Jewish community,” said Dr. Arthur C. Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council.

Dr. Khan was traveling in Ghana this week and did not respond to email or telephone messages for this article.

His group, according to its website alislam.org , “is a dynamic, fast growing international revival movement within Islam” that has members in the “tens of millions” in more than 200 countries. Its international headquarters is in the United Kingdom while its U.S. headquarters is in Silver Spring.

Many of the sect’s members come from India, where the branch of Islam was founded in 1889.

Read more.