Drops of rain trickle down the green minaret of the Fazl Mosque, nestled in a residential neighbourhood in the London borough of Wandsworth. The mosque and its surrounding buildings are the international headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a religious movement originated in the Indian town of Qadian in 1889.

Dozens of worshippers salute Mirza Masroor Ahmad – the community’s fifth Caliph and leader – as he enters a compound adjacent to the mosque, after leading the afternoon prayer.

“He is a very busy man, he reads and respond to hundreds of letters everyday and writes his own speeches,” members of the community explain. The Caliph does not have an easy task: He leads one of the most persecuted religious communities in the world.

Ahmadi Muslims, or simply Ahmadis, believe the founder of their movement, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the “Mahdi” – or Messiah– Muslims had been waiting for.

Ahmad, who died in 1908, sought to… read more at source.