The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

False statement by a Maulana in South Africa

It was by complete chance that, during my return flight from Lahore on 31st May, a fellow passenger discarded a copy of the well-known Urdu newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt of that date, and I picked it up. By further chance, my eye struck a short interview in it with one Maulana Mufti Zubair Bayat, introduced as President of the Jami`at-ul-Ulama of the Natal province in South Africa. The Maulana was interviewed during a visit to Makka where he was performing Umra.

A question he was asked by the interviewer was: “How many Qadianis are there in South Africa, and what line of action are the Muslims there taking in order to defeat the mischief of Qadianiyyat?”

The Maulana gave the following reply:

“A few years ago, Muslims in South Africa instituted a court case against Qadianiyyat in the High Court. They made it clear that the Ahmadiyya community is not a sect of Islam but is a new religion. They have no connection with Muslims; in fact, the Qadianis are a non-Muslim group. The High Court of South Africa considered the beliefs of the Qadianis and, being sensitive to the feelings of the Muslims, it ruled in favour of Muslims by declaring the Qadianis as kafir. On the side of the Muslims, Ulama from Pakistan such as Maulana Manzoor Ahmad Chinioti and others played an important role.” (Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, Lahore, 31st May 2008, p. 20, lower half, column 3)

The Maulana is from South Africa and therefore cannot plead ignorance for his mis-statements in this reply. While being on Umra in Makka, he has uttered a number of absolute untruths in his reply. Due to my involvement in our Cape Town court cases, I know it for a fact that the Maulana has made the following misrepresentations:

1. No “Qadiani” was at all involved in any such court case in South Africa. In one case it was a member of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement and in another it was a Sunni imam who was being persecuted by the ulama because he regarded Ahmadis as Muslims.

2. The “Muslims in South Africa” never instituted any court case against any Ahmadi. Both court cases were instituted against the Ulama.

3. No court in South Africa has at all, ever, ruled that Ahmadis (or Qadianis for that matter) are kafir. In fact, in the case that concluded in 1985 the court ruled that Lahore Ahmadis, the plaintiffs, are Muslims. The court ruled that the Ulama were defaming our members by calling them kafir, and it prohibited them from continuing this defamation.

4. The claim of the Maulana that “Muslims in South Africa” filed a suit is quite shameful for the following further reasons. (a) The Ulama vigorously submitted to the court that the court, being secular, was not qualified to determine who is a Muslim. (b) When the court ruled in favour of the Ahmadi plaintiff, the Pakistani Ulama who had been helping the Ulama in South Africa published statements that “the judge was a biassed Jew” and as “Qadianis are agents of Israel” therefore he ruled in their favour.

But now history is turned on its head and we are told that the Ulama actually themselves asked the court to determine if Ahmadis are Muslims, and the court gave a ruling in favour of the Ulama . What happened to the “biassed Jewish judge” story that was splashed in Pakistani newspapers in November 1985 by these Ulama?

No wonder the ulama of the latter days are described in Hadith as the worst creation under the sky.

I and others are prepared to make a statement sworn on the Holy Quran that the facts I have put forward above are true and within our personal knowledge. Is the Maulana prepared to swear on the Quran that his reply is true?

Zahid Aziz