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Ajit Jain India Abroad Correspondent in Toronto
Over 10,000 people are expected to attend the 25th annual Ahmadiyya Muslim convention, scheduled for July 6-8.
The convention, to be held at the Bai'tul Islam mosque in suburban Maple, north of Toronto, will be mainly devoted to propagating the discourses of the Promised Messiah Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the Adhmadiyya movement in Islam in 1890 in Qadian (India).
Naseem Mahdi, Ahamdiyyas president in Canada, claims that the Bai'tul mosque, which cost $4.5 million to build, is the biggest mosque in Canada. "The money to build this mosque came entirely from individual donations from our community. We didn't take a single penny from any government or financial institution," he added.
They have built 10 other mosques in major Canadian cities and the latest is under construction in Delta (British Columbia), where there is a large South Asian population.
This small community, with about 15,000 people in Greater Toronto, has in a short time gained political clout. That is obvious from the lineups of federal, provincial and municipal politicians who attend their events: Last year, the list was headed by Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin, known as prime minister in-waiting, and followed by Health Minister Allan Rock, Minister for International Co-operation Maria Minna, and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party Joe Clark.
It is part of tradition, Mahdi said, that millions of their members routinely offer countless hours of voluntary services, to assist the community achieve its objectives. They also volunteer support to Canadian political candidates in election campaigns, so that when elected, they could help the Ahmadiyya community.
Pakistan disenfranchised Ahmadiyyas a few years back, when under law they became 'non-Muslims'.
"The Ahmadis will, under pain of punishment, be barred, directly or indirectly, from referring to themselves as Muslims or calling their place of worship a mosque, or using the Azan - the Muslim call to prayer - as their call for the same purpose," the Pakistani government said in an ordinance in 1984.
There is also a web site that denounces the Ahmnadiyya movement in Islam as "pseudo-Islamic cults".
''The Quaran says there is no deity other than Allah. This is the first half of the attestation of every Muslim, the second half being that Muhammad is Allah's Prophet," it argues. "Anything that leads you to another version of Islam, stay away," Muslims are advised.
The Ahmadiyyas, on the other hand, do not accept the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad as they believe in their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be the Promised Messiah.
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