Los Angeles Times: by Carol J. Williams.
Just weeks after the terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon,
the global leader of the world’s 10-million-plus Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
has brought his religion’s message of peace, public service and uplift
to
the faithful of Southern California.
While those principles are embraced by most of the Muslim world, the Ahmadis’ outlook is distinctive. The visiting khalifa, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, is critical of mixing religion and governance and points to the restive Middle East countries in the “Arab Spring” aftermath as examples of discord born of religious rule. He speaks laudingly of Western democracy and praises Israeli President Shimon Peres for his ideas on restoring stability to the conflict-plagued region.
The first West Coast visit of the khalifa was scheduled long before the April 15 attacks in Boston that have newly shaken the American public’s sense of security and serenity. But in the nervous aftermath of that latest terror strike, which may or may not have had any connection to radical Islam, the need to tackle misconceptions and prejudices about Muslims is all the more obvious and challenging, in
the view of the religious leader.
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