theworld.org: On a recent afternoon, a Beverly Hills hotel lobby was packed with people, as if a rock star was about to walk through the doors and security had to be beefed up. But instead, the bustle was for Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, an Islamic spiritual leader on his first visit to California.
In front of clicking photographers, he delivered his message of peace.
“Do you ever feel your safety is at risk by taking such a strong, but moderate, peaceful position?,” a reporter asked.
“You see,” Ahmad said in a low voice, “my goal is to extend the message of Islam; the message of true Islam. No matter whether my life is at risk or not.”
Jihad, or holy war, is a peaceful quest, he preaches. His beliefs seem easy to embrace. But not everyone agrees.
Ahmad, based in London, represents the Ahmadiyya Muslim movement worldwide. It’s unknown to most Americans, but in the Muslim world it represents a departure from mainstream Islam, by believing that an Indian man—Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad—is the Messiah, that he’s already arrived, and that there will be no second coming of Jesus.
Categories: Ahmadis And Pakistan, Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Americas