8/24/05, Letter to the Editor, printed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

(Printed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 24, 2005, in response to “Are the Ahmadis Muslim? Sect members say yes; others in Islam say no,” by Brian Feagans)

Dear Editor:

I read Brian Feagans' articles with keen interest. His wonderful appraisal of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was one of the best I've read in an American paper. He carefully captured the plight of the community while subtly extolling the community's remarkable strength of spirit.

Indeed, the tragic irony of the persecution of the Ahmadiyya community today is that Ahmadis represent astonishingly well the moderate thread of Islam. In the face of persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, Ahmadis advocate universal human rights, tolerance, and deliberation. They have condemned militant manifestations of Islam in vociferous terms.

Ahmadis have set up progressive schools, hospitals for the sick and needy and welfare programs. They have built interreligious coalitions against affronts to basic civil and religious liberties.

Some estimates calculate that Ahmadis in Pakistan, though only representing 3 percent of the country's total population, represent nearly 20 percent of its literate population.

Two of Pakistan's most respected personalities, Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, Pakistan's first foreign minister and the only person ever to serve as both the president of the UN General Assembly (19621963) and president of the International Court of Justice (19701973), and Professor Abdus Salam, the first Pakistani Nobel laureate, were both Ahmadis.

It is my sincere hope that astute journalists like Feagans continue to report about progressive Muslim minorities like the Ahmadiyya Community. Such reporting furthers the hope that commonalities between the West and Islam may be preserved in the presence of a militant perversion of Islam rather than be destroyed by it.

Again, congratulations on a fine piece.

Amjad Mahmood Khan