Mansoora Chaudhary is in something of a post-holiday frame of mind. Just last week, she, along with the rest of the Muslim world, celebrated Eid al-Adha, the celebration marking the end of the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

During the celebration, special religious services, family visits, dinner parties and the sacrifice of animals to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, to God, take place.

“There is an air of celebration during Eid,” says the Canadian-born mother of three.

While Chaudhary celebrates this religious holiday like all other Muslims, what sets her apart within the wider Islamic nation is she belongs to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, which believes the Messiah, foretold by the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, already arrived in the form of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who was born in Qadian, India, in 1835.

“By that time, many people had forgotten the real teachings of Islam,” says Chaudhary. “Mirza came to revive Islam.”

Today, Ahmadiyya Muslims live in more than 200 countries. Chaudhary estimates about 2,000 Ahmadiyya Muslims live in Calgary. They have one mosque in Calgary – the Baitun Nur mosque. Chaudhary, herself, is a general secretary of the northwest branch of the Calgary Ahmadiyya Muslim community.

Like most Ahmadiyya Muslims in Calgary, she is of Pakistani origin, as Pakistan was the movement’s original headquarters. However, due to persecution in Pakistan, the community’s spiritual leader now lives in England. Read further.