55,000 Gather for Ahmadiyya Muslim Festival ‘Jalsa Salana’ in Surrey
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community held its annual festival, the Jalsa Salana UK, in fields near Alton in Hampshire this weekend. An estimated 55,000 people were there, including 10,000 volunteers and visiting dignitaries and members from countries all over the world.
There were 13 exhibitions with information about the extensive aid programmes the community runs, such as on peace, the environment, agriculture, humanitarian aid and education. But the key part of the festival was spiritual and community development, with women on one side where men were disallowed, and men on the other side, which women could walk into.
The atmosphere was one of determined attention to spiritual engagement, through prayer and listening to reflections on the faith, including sermons from the Caliph, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor. He is the fifth Caliph of the movement founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who is regarded as the Messiah, a claim not accepted by mainstream Islam, which has led to Ahmadiyya Muslims being persecuted especially in Muslim majority countries. Their international headquarters is now in Tilford, near the site of the festival, and thair main mosque is in Morden, south London. A full report on the festival will follow later this week. Meanwhile, here‘s an ITV film showing the vibrancy of the event.
A YouGov survey commissioned by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, found that 53 per cent of people in Britain believed Islam is not compatible with British values. This view was shared mainly by people aged over 50. Under 25s were more likely to think Muslims makes a positive impact on society,
source https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/news/religion-news-28-july-2025/
