Wedge

Hugh Fitzgerald takes a look at the Ahmadiya, which the Malays call Qadianism. Fitzgerald would like public Ahmadis like Qasim Rashid to distance themselves from the Sunnite madhahib which preach violence in jihad. He also suggests that where and when Ahmadis promote "Islam" among us kuffar, that we invite the Ahmadis to go that distance on camera.

I agree with Fitzgerald - to that point. However the man has shown his hand at the end: he'd like Ahmadis, one by one, to exit Islam entirely. Like the Bahaiya has done as a community.

There's actually a split in the Ahmadiya itself between the old school, who still reveres their founder as the prophet he'd claimed to be; and a newer school which is attempting to rejoin Islam. The latter have congregated around Mawlana Muhammad Ali from Lahore; you've probably seen his Quran translation and commentary. I suspect Rashid and the other public-facing Ahmadis sit mainly in the latter camp.

Although I haven't yet addressed any Ahmadis myself, overall an analogy can be made with the Bahais; with whom, I have held conversations on this topic. Those conversations addressed the possible reform of the Quran, and the Bahai approach to its contents. The Bahai - last I looked - persist with Shoghi Effendi and have no intention toward a revisionist attitude. Sura 9 will remain in their canon, as a Gabriel-mediated Revelation delivered in a Muhammadan age. Since Ahmadis are more insistent on their Islamic identity I expect such conversations with Ahmadis to go similarly.

Ahmadis and Bahais do, still, follow new prophets, which sura 48 (an obvious forgery) bans to the more benighted Muslims. This means that they are both open to a revision of the Quran like the Barghawata movement had done in the Maghreb, and as several other movements in historical Iran. If they're banned from Hajj to Mecca, why should a revisionist care.

Rather than taking Ahmadis out of "Islam", I'd focus more on taking them out of the Sunnite consensus on Islam's definition.

BACKDATING 9/8 10:52 AM MST