Source: thestar.com | blogs.windsorstar.com
Said Ahmed Arif, the Imam of Berlin’s Khadija mosque, a mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, addresses guests during a New Year reception in Berlin on January 21, 2015. The Ahmaddiya Muslim Community, considered heretical by orthodox Muslims, were keen to condemn the recent attacks on the French satyrical weekly Charlie Hebdo, stressing that non-violence and tolerance was one of the movements main pillars. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALLJOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images
The controversial Imam in Montreal, Hamza Chaoui believes that democracy and Islam are “parallel lines that never intersect and that the vote is a sin”
But he should look at history and see that the early Muslims after the death of Prophet Muhammad elected four consecutive caliphs by a public vote.
The former head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community said, “Islamic teachings do not reject any political system of the world, but Islam leaves it to the choice of the people. What Islam emphasizes is not the form of government but how the government should discharge itself.”
Canada’s values are more Islamic than any so-called “Muslim” state today, and if Chaoui has a problem with that, he is free to leave.
SHAKIL MIRZA, Mississauga, Ont.
Montreal-based imam Hamza Chaoui
Hamza Chaoui is a Montreal-based imam with hundreds of people who follow his religious teachings on Facebook and YouTube.
It is a dispute that started with a few pictures of a renovated prayer space on Facebook and a newspaper article that pushed the City of Montreal into action at a time of heightened concern over religious fundamentalism, radicalization and terrorism are top of mind for politicians.
Municipal officials said they were concerned by the more extreme nature of his religious messages, which include advocacy of sharia law, corporal punishments and his assertion that Islamic teachings are incompatible with democracy. The two regimes are “two parallel lines that will never intersect,” he wrote on his Facebook page in… read more at thestar.com
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Americas, Islam, United States
I hope that Imam does not belong to Jama’at Ahmadiyah. He is wrong. Quran emphasizes “Mushawarat i.e. consultation. How there will be consultation without any voting? He is definitely wrong to suggest against democracy and voting.
According to Socrates, democracy has its drawbacks. The best form of government according to Socrates is a philosopher king, that is almost like khilafat e rashidah. That is a king in service of the people. But presently, democracy is doing well as long as it looks after the morality.