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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

QeRN: An Identity crisis made worse


All of us want to be associated with a positive cause, a constructive way of life which has something to offer to the world. That is why many of us volunteer for charities, take active part in community life: Many of us go to a Mosque or Church with the same aim in mind. Although religious faith offers more than just a meaningful worldly life, many believers are primarily motivated by the lifestyle a certain faith offers.

Islam is no exception in this respect. But as Quran and Sunnah state that if one leads a righteous life in this world, they will attain spiritual exaltation before they meet their Maker; thus fulfilling the grand purpose of their creation.



QeRN Academy Website: Confusing the Muslim identity further?


My sympathies go to the people running the 'QeRN' project. They are indeed caught between a rock and a hard place. At one hand they believe themselves to be good Muslims, worthy of this recognition by the West. And at the other hand they are orthodox enough to hate and ridicule the Ahmadiyya Muslims to get into the good books of their more conservative brethren.  QeRN is a UK registered non-profit organization. Their aims are stated to highlight the modern day issues facing the 'Muslim Identity'.

Who knows what their source of funding is? But scrolling through the material they have posted, there is plenty of strong anti-Ahmadiyya content on this website, making 'Ahmadiyya' the most used label/tag by the authors. And it is well known that such organizations are funded by the same people who fund many other militant extremists around the Islamic world.

I could not find any clear mission statement or information about the 'QeRN Academy' on the website, but there is plenty of legal material, terms of use etc to give the visitor an impression of the paranoid nature of the project.

Apart from the Ahmadi-Islamophobia, one can see some individual articles showing strong affiliation of the writers with Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuze Khatme Nabuwwat, the international network of hard line clerics spreading hate speech against the Ahmadi Muslims all around the world.


A list of topics discussed at QeRN Website. No marks for guessing the real purpose of the 'Project'.


Even their seemingly neutral articles can be linked to the sinister organization. For example, MP Sadiq Khan features in one of the entries attending a Hajj exhibition. MP Khan was involved in a controversy during his election campaign when his supporters and the shady 'Tooting Islamic Center' were involved in hate speech against the local Ahmadiyya community. 

While the QeRN author(s) are trying to define and defend the modern Muslim identity in the modern world, their focus is squarely on the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. The writer shamelessly criticizes media reports of the Ahmadiyya persecution as biased. According to them Ahmadi Mosques were attacked for the same reason Taliban attacked other military and paramilitary targets across Pakistan. They cannot see that Ahmadis are not victims of terrorism when they are target-killed almost on a weekly basis all over Pakistan. For QeRN, this is only innocent terrorism- God forbid if there was any hint of religious motive behind them!

While the world watched in horror how a Deobandi-Wahabi inspired militant outfit sent suicide bombers to murder Ahmadi worshippers, many  Pakistanis was more concerned with the use of the words 'Mosque' and 'Friday prayers' by some initial media reports. Days after the incident when a private TV news show dared to invite for the first time in history, an Ahmadi leader to tell the world about the event, Majlis Tahaffuz Khatme Nabuwwat Mullahs had to be invited very soon to tell the world about the Ahmadiyya heresy. The 'Majlis' has deep roots in Deobandi-Wahabi ideology practiced by the Taliban. The banned militant groups who openly kill Ahmadis and Shias in Pakistan have known, verified and confirmed links with Deobandi seminaries. The same seminaries which have issued fatwas of death against Ahmadis on numerous occasions.

So it surprises me that an 'Academy' is trying to define for Western Muslims an identity borrowed from the hate-filled Madrassah's of Pakistan.  One of the QeRN writers (or the same one perhaps) could not hide their despair at the demise of one Osama bin Laden. According to the writer

but most of us could not help, from time to time, from identifying with the angst he (bin Laden sic.) felt for the pride and self-respect of the Muslim Ummah that he referred to in his speeches. So, as a fellow Muslim, I will not judge him here in obituary, but I can say at the death of a Muslim — inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’oon – to Allah we belong and to him we return.

This project is unfortunately very misleading for its mainstream Muslim readers. It gives them a false sense of security that everything is alright with the Islamic world. There is no crisis of leadership. Urban Pakistan is a Utopia for Christians. Extremists only exist as a reaction to the Wetern invasion of their lands. And Ahmadis are surely kafirs, trying to hijack the faith of 1.5 billion Muslims by putting up posters on buses. And what do the posters say?

 Love for All, Hatred for None.

2 comments:

  1. AA,

    The sad person that owns this pathetic QERN website is known as Akber Choudry. A ex-Ahmadi supposedly, but I think he was rejected/ejected for some dubious reasons, now he just seems a little upset. Anyway here we have Akber Chaudry sb in action.. getting destroyed by Ansar Raza sb in a "debate".

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-rS1ws7mGc

    Akber Choudry sb had to heavily edit this video to make himself look good... but he still looked like a numpty. Asar Raza sb released the full 3 hr debate which he recored in audo while there, available here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7mCbQD0OYY

    Ws

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JazakAllah for your comments. I do not wish to comment on Mr. Chaudhary's motives/reasons for leaving the Jama'at. He is free to choose his faith and what he does with his life.

      These debates are an interesting insight into his mindset. thanks for sharing.

      Delete

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