Ahmadis urged to report threats (From Your Local Guardian)

Ahmadis urged to report threats

7:30am Tuesday 7th September 2010 in

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Ahmaddiya Muslims have been urged to report violent threats against them to the police, as the community mourns another terrorist attack.

Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh made the request this week, after Ahmadis who worship at the Bait-ul-Futuh Mosque in Morden complained leaflets urging passersby to kill them were handed out in Kingston.

Ms McDonagh said: “When this sort of thing happens, lots of rumours circulate and people are very frightened. People must report these things to the police.”

She is setting up a parliamentary group on issues affecting the sect, which is expected to meet for the first time later this month.

Her spokesman said 12 MPs had already signed up to join the parliamentary group, and more had given it their backing.

The group will discuss a variety issues affecting Ahmadis, including threats against them by other Muslim groups - some of whom consider the sect to be unislamic.

In July a teenage Ahmadi girl said she was approached in Kingston Town Centre by men handing out literature urging other Muslims to kill members of the sect. The police are investigating the incident.

On Friday worshippers at the group’s mosque in London Road mourned another terrorist attack against the community in Pakistan.

Earlier that day two terrorists attacked an Ahmadi mosque in the town of Mardan with guns and grenades. One eventually detonated a bomb he had strapped to himself, killing Sheikh Amir Raza, a 40-year-old worshipper who owned an electronics business.

A spokesman said more than 5,000 people attended Friday prayers at the Bait-ul-Futuh Mosque to pay their respects to those killed and injured in the attack.

In May 72 Ahmadis, including Southfields resident Muhammad Bilal, were killed in an attack on two mosques in Lahore.