Ahmadis are considered heretical by mainstream Muslims for, among other things, not pursuing violent jihad, although they are aggressive proponents of da'wah.
Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Indonesian Muslims urge Ahmadiyya sect disbanded," from Reuters, August 4 (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Several hundred Indonesian Muslims rallied on Monday in Jakarta and Surabaya, urging the government to disband the Ahmadiyya sect which many followers of Islam consider heretical.The government of the world's most populous Muslim country has come under increasing pressure from hard-line groups in recent months to ban Ahmadiyya, whose followers refuse to accept the Prophet Mohammad as Islam's final prophet.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government issued a ministerial decree in June that stopped short of banning the sect, but warned that followers could face five years in jail for tarnishing religion....
Robert,
Have there been any previous stories posted at Jihad Watch in which Muslims call the Ahmadis heretical specifically because they do not wage violent jihad? I have not seen any Muslims say this yet.
Ben,
I don't remember whether I've posted this on JW before or not -- I didn't do a search. But here is the information. Here is an Ahmadi page defending the sect against the charge from the orthodox that they have discarded jihad:
http://ahmadiyya.org/books/f-ahm-mv/ch10.htm
Cordially
Robert Spencer
I've experienced first-hand da'wah from an Ahmadi. Things like Quran 5:51 only applies during a time of war (false), Muhammad never attacked anyone and he only defended himself (if people hadn't died by his command, this would be laughably false), and Islam ended slavery (very false). There are more, but you get the idea.
And ahmadiyya.org says this about the Ahmadi prophet (another reason Ahmadi's are heretics is because they have a prophet after Muhammad):
"In his capacity as the Promised Messiah who was to fight the dajjal, as mentioned earlier, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad considered it a most vital and essential part of his mission to present the teachings of Islam to the Western world."
And Ahmad himself said of a continuing mission at the annual Ahmadi conference:
"One of the essential requirements of this gathering will be to consider plans for the spiritual well-being of Europe and America, for it is now established that the good-natured people of Europe and America are getting ready to accept Islam."
There are additional quotes, but that is enough for now.
The Ahmadis may not be practicing aggressive jihad, but you can decide for yourself if they are being subversive about their intentions.
One of the very first sentences from the Ahmadi page Robert linked to is quite interesting.
'It is easy to see that anyone who accepts the Holy Quran and the Holy Prophet Muhammad cannot deny jihad, injunctions relating to which occupy a considerable portion of the Holy Quran.'
No matter how much they quibble about when jihad is "appropriate" (and we all know the goalposts continually move in relation to what constitutes "war", never mind "civilians"), that sentence speaks volumes.
Refer people to it when they argue that jihad is not imperative for all Believers. And remind them that these are the "peaceful" Muslims.
That Ahmadiya page cited by Robert makes no mention of Naseem's formula of simply skipping/ignoring inconvenient surahs/ayats to the contrary.
You mean that jihad is a mainstream Islamic practice? Somebody better tell CAIR.
If the Ahmadiyya are too tolerant to be accepted by the Muslim mainstream, then the fictional Euro-islam can't actually compromise with the humanist ideas prevalent in the West. If it did, it would be rejected also.
On the other side of the coin, the testimony by Liberal Guy and the push to jihad make the Ahmadiyya as dangerous to non-muslims as other islamic sects.
The L.A. Times had something on this sect as well. I sent them a letter to the editor pointing out how although Indonesia proclaims to have freedom of religion, they have many laws that restrict religious freedom. I wonder if they'll print that.
Here's the link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sect3-2008aug03,0,6384785.story?track=rss