LONDON: Piles of leaflets calling for the death of Ahmadis have been found at a south London mosque, according to a BBC report.
The leaflets, written in English by a former leader of the Khatme Nabuwwat, call for ‘capital punishment’ of Ahmadis unless they renounce their faith and convert to mainstream Islam within three days.
According to the International Business Times, the same pamphlets have been distributed at various events and locations in London over the past few years.
According to the BBC, the Khatme Nabuwwat lists the Stockwell Green mosque as its office in Charity Commission documents and has also listed it as an ‘overseas office’ on its website.
When contacted by the BBC, Toaha Qureshi, a mosque trustee said, “We have not published any pamphlet of that kind. This is nothing to do with our mosque. Someone might have put it there and taken from there with malicious intentions.”
The same mosque has been previously accused of promoting acts of terror in Pakistan in 2011, when similar pamphlets were distributed in Pakistan directing readers to the Stockwell Green mosque's website.
Qureshi had denied association with the organisation at the time, saying the mosque is an independent organisation and its name had been misused.
The incident comes less than a month after an Ahmadi shopkeeper in Glasgow was killed in what police termed a "religiously prejudiced" murder.
Read more: Man says killed Ahmadi shopkeeper in Scotland for disrespecting Prophet (PBUH)
Ahmadis are a persecuted minority and are considered by many to be non-Muslims, often forcing them to flee to western countries.
The issue is most serious in Pakistan, where Ahmadis have been targeted for reading the Holy Quran, holding religious celebrations and having Quranic verses on rings or wedding cards.
Several Ahmadi families have moved out of Pakistan since 1974 which was when the country declared the community non-Muslim. But the group has become particularly vulnerable since 1984, when Pakistan passed laws forbidding them from saying or doing anything associated with Islam.
