The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a relatively new Islamic sect that espouses moderation and claims credit for the understanding of “jihad” as an internal moral struggle, wants to share dinner and dialogue with other faiths at weekly Ramadan suppers.
“We’ll be offering dinner every weekend in September, Saturday and Sunday, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at our mosques, and we invite the public to come,” stated Zaki Kauser, an imam, or pastor, and spokesperson for the 50-chapter AMC in the United States.
“We’ll deliver a short lecture about Ramadan and how Muslims fast,” Kauser added, “and break bread with other people and help our community mingle with other communities and get to know one another better.”
Kauser said the fast-suspending feast — observant Muslims fast from food and drink from sunrise to sunset for 30 days of Ramadan, Islam’s penitential season — is free of charge. Locally, it will be served at the Ahmadiyya Mosque of Baltimore.
“I am prepared to dialogue with anyone who is not calling for the destruction of the state of Israel, the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg of the Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Pikesville.
Wohlberg added that he already has scheduled November talks at his synagogue with a Muslim imam.
“Anytime one can have serious, ecumenical discussions, then one should have them — especially with people who are themselves … looked upon with suspicion in this country,” said Rabbi Emeritus Mark Loeb of Beth El Congregation in Park Heights.
“However, if it’s to be an ecumenical discussion,” he added, “then it has to be clear than no one comes with a [proselytizing] agenda.”
The Ahmadiyya Muslim sect arose in India in 1889 and holds that its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, is the awaited messiah and realization of Christianity’s expectation for a second coming of Jesus Christ. The worldwide movement, Kauser said, is a harbinger of restored morality, peace and justice throughout society, and its tens of millions of adherents are weaning Islam from fanatical beliefs.
Ahmadiyya Muslims don’t believe revelation ended with Muhammad; hold to a separation of mosque and state; and, though apolitical, believe that both Israel and Palestine have the right to exist as states. The group claims 15,000 members in the United States, 300-400 in Baltimore area.
Attaulla Khan, head of interfaith outreach at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, was unaware of AMC’s Ramadan dinner offer, but said that he, too, welcomed interfaith dialogue.
IF YOU GO
Interfaith Ramadan dinners
- Where: Ahmadiyya Mosque of Baltimore
- 4406 Garrison Blvd., Baltimore
- When: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through the end of September
- Info.: 410-367-1900
