Who are the Ahmadiyya?

More than 43,000 members of the Ahmadiyya religious community gathered in Karlsruhe, Germany, for their annual meeting. Participants prayed, but also discussed current issues, such as integration. A spokesman for the faith community said the leader of the international group, “Caliph” Mirza Masroor Ahmad, would address the topic of integration.    

The Ahmadiyya religious community (AMJ) was founded in British India in 1889. Even though it comprises roughly 12 million members from 204 countries at the time of this publishing, AMJ does not make up a majority in any of the world's Islamic countries. Rather, they are in the minority wherever they live.    

According to the AMJ, which is headquartered in London, some 40,000 of its members live in Germany. It also says it is the fastest growing “Muslim reform group” in the world.  

Who was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad?  

The movement was started by the reformist theologian Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908). Born in the Punjab province in what was then British India, the preacher claimed to be a "follower prophet" ("Zilli Nabi") and a “messiah,” which the Ahmadiyya also equate with a "Mahdi," or one who is guided by God. As such, his followers believe he received "revelations" from God. Other Muslim communities reject his claim. The conflict between these groups and the Ahmadiyya can be traced back to this time.   

The founder's contentious claim also led to rifts within the Ahmadiyya itself, and eventually to a split within the AMJ after Ahmad's death. One group, which disputed the leader's claim of being a prophet, settled in Lahore. Those convinced of the veracity of Ahmad’s claim founded a "spiritual caliphate" in Qadian, his birthplace. His current successor, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who AMJ members regard as the “fifth caliph”, resides in London.  

Ahmadiyya in Germany

The first Ahmadiyya settled in Germany in the early 20th century. They have established and operated places of worship since the 1920s. Many Ahmadiyya also relocated to Germany when the group was banished from Islam in Pakistan in the early 1970s. In the Muslim-majority country, AMJ members are considered “non-Muslims.”   

The Ahmadiyya became a legally registered organization in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1988. Its members largely ascribe to the tenets of the Qadian Ahmadiyya — that is, they acknowledge Ahmad’s claim that he was a “prophet.”   

On its website, the organization claims to be the only religious movement to be led by a “wholly spiritual caliphate” for more than a century. "The caliph of the AMJ, His Holiness Hadhrath Mirza Masroor Ahmad, is the world's most important Muslim leader," the group claims.  

Ahmadiyya teachings criticized

According to the group's German website, it is committed to the "founding values of Islam." Among these, the group lists "mercy and charity toward all people, absolute justice, equality between men and women, the separation of church and state and the end to all violence carried out in the name of religion, as stated in the Quran."    

The Ahmadiyya also staunchly advocate integration, both for individuals as well as associations. Thus, AMJ chapters became statutory bodies under public law in the German state of Hesse in 2013 and in Hamburg in 2014. Moreover, the AMJ also partners with the government of Hesse in organizing religious studies in state schools.    

Yet Necla Kelek, a prominent Turkish-born social scientist and feminist who lives in Berlin, rejects the group's characterization of itself as a liberal organization. She says that although the group presents itself as such outwardly, members interpret the Quran and the Sunna, laws based on the teachings of Muhammad, as the literal word of Allah.    

"That means the world is divided between believers and infidels, just as it is in the most archconservative strains of Islam," says Kelek. She adds that despite claims to the contrary, men and women within the community are strictly separated from one another.    

The AMJ's homepage, however, presents the movement as one of tolerance.  

Editor's note: This article has been amended since its original publication to reflect the legal situation in Pakistan.