Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya Muslims

Prayers being said at Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya Mosque

Members of Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya community are aiming to try and increase people's understanding of Islam in the town.

The community first came together in the early 1960s.

Community President Munir Ahmed, says it had "a very humble beginning" in a terraced house in Hope Street.

In those days, he says, the main emphasis was on "collective prayers and getting young children to read the Holy Qur'an."

While the Ahmadiyya Community are now well established - they've been at their present mosque in Fitzwilliam Street for over 30 years - the events of 9/11 have provided them with a new focus to their work both within their community and within the town.

Munir Ahmed says: "Since 9/11 it was amazing that the perception of the world has changed towards Muslims...It was important that we focused on peace, we focused on the literal meaning of Islam. We focused on what we needed to do and how to guide those people."

We all need to make sure we can actually work at the goodness in all religions as opposed to being divisive." Munir Ahmed from Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya Community

He explains that suicide bombing has no part in Islam: "In Islam taking your own life is forbidden and that means that nobody will enter your funeral, there will be no funeral prayers. No one will give you any importance and that includes your own family. This is how taking your life is seen in Islam."

These are issues which Munir says are discussed within the Ahmadiyya community: "We are the only religious group that does have contemporary issues - forced marriages versus arranged marriages. We discuss these issues openly."

Fatih Ul Haq, regional head of the Ansarullah - the Community's organisation for members over 40 - has been running training sessions for the West Yorkshire Police: "Basically they just want to know about Islam, Jihad and other aspects which can help them to deal with Muslim people."

So far there have been four sessions with over 50 police officers present at each session. Fatih Ul Haq sets out to show that Islam is a religion of peace: "Peace literally means obedience and submission, and it's an Arabic word which is delivered from Salem which itself means purity, submission and obedience. We try to explain these things.

"What Islam says is that Islam is a religion of peace so the Qur'an itself says if you kill one person you kill the whole of mankind. Islam in itself does not permit anybody to kill any innocent people or take anybody's life."

Munir Ahmed from Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya Community

The sessions also deal with very practical issues raised by the police who have asked questions such as if it's necessary to check someone's ID, how should they deal with a woman if she's wearing a veil. Fatih Ul Haq suggests that they should ask her to remove it in "a very respectful way...[If] it's very important I think they shouldn't refuse to show it."

Both outside and inside the mosque hangs the motto: 'Love for all, hatred for none.' Fatih Ul Haq explains: "That's the motto given by our third Khalifa actually when he went to inaugurate the Spanish mosque which was the first mosque built in Spain in 700 years. He gave us this motto. We are trying to act on that motto."

Yousaf Aftab is the north-eastern regional youth leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association. He says the association is about promoting peace and living according to the motto: "We actually abide by that ethos and try to practise it. As Muslims we should anyway." In the last few years members of Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya Community have been inviting people from across the town to a series of Peace Symposiums to discuss how everyone can work together.

The Youth Association recently linked up with Huddersfield Methodist Mission, joining with them in feeding the homeless on Christmas Day. Munir Ahmed says: "That shows the Christian faith and the Muslim faith working hand in hand.

"Yet if you look at this in terms of other faiths, and other Muslims, they would say, 'No, we don't because we don't believe in this and we don't believe in that'. This is where we differ because we feel that all faiths have a common purpose and we've all got to work together in terms of similarities."

Motto followed by Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya community

The Ahmadiyya Community engages actively in social work. In Huddersfield its members have supported many of the town's charities over the years including the Bodyscanner and Lord Mayor's Appeal, as well as social projects elsewhere in the world.

On the Muslim holy days of Eid ud Adha and Eid ul Fitr Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya Muslims hand out chocolates to their neighbours and at Christmas they wish them the season's greetings. Munir Ahmed says: "We need to make sure that we are celebrating other people's celebrations as well as our own.

"I think life is too small, life is too fragile...We all need to make sure we can actually work at the goodness in all religions as opposed to being divisive."

Take a look at Huddersfield's Ahmadiyya Mosque in 360° with our panoramic views