Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamat Hosts Belize’s Largest Annual Islamic Conference

This week, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamat is hosting its tenth annual Jalsa Salana, the largest Muslim conference held in Belize. The two-day event, being held at the mosque at mile and a half on the George Price Highway, is aimed at increasing connections between the Muslim community and the people of Belize. The free event will feature talks about various aspects of Islam, testimonials of those who have converted to the faith, and an exhibition detailing the global history of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat. Stephen Ata’ul Haq Gabb, a missionary with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Belize, says that the information sharing sessions will be an opportunity to dispel misconceptions that people may have about Islam.

Stephen Ata’Ul Haq Gabb, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Belize: “It’s a spiritual event. It started in 1891 by the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, the Promised Messiah, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be upon him. And he started this event because he claimed himself to be a prophet and he wanted people to meet him so that they can see that he does have a connection with God. And so we want people to come so that we can also treat them  as wonderful guests of whom we believe is a prophet of God. And so we want to garner a connection with the people of Belize. And we want to  even inform them  of the different misconceptions that they have maybe about Islam.  And even when we’re sitting down and we’re having… you know, lunch together, if you have  certain ideas that you would like to exchange with us and how we could continue to serve or better serve the people of Belize. So, Jalsa Salana is  an event again, a spiritual event in which we want to invite every single person.  It’s not just a Muslim event. We want to invite our Christian friends, our Hindu friends, Jewish friends, every single person. You are more than welcome to come and to sit with us because this year the theme is Islam, a religion of peace. And we want to show you that we are truly peaceful and loving people. Right. Our motto is love for all and hatred for none.”

Imam Arslan Warraich, President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamat Belize, says that the event will also feature updates on the various positive community initiatives being carried out throughout the country.

Arslan Warraich, President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Belize: “As the community grows there’s different interesting topics that  have been put into the sessions. For example, there’s a bunch of people who will be sharing their conversion stories. There are a bunch of people who will be sharing the different initiatives. So the basketball league as you guys know is a very popular thing here. I know Mr. Flowers loves  the basketball league. Then there’s also this water company that we started last year and it has seen great success. So then we have presentations on that to inform people as to what is going on, the impact that is happening. We have tutoring that happens here regularly. So we try to kind of give back and kind of create more awareness for everyone. So we have presentations on all of these. Then we have a huge success with this Better Brothers initiative that we’ve started with vulnerable youth, right? Or at-risk youths. And we’ve gone to various schools and we’ve gotten those students that they felt are at most risk. And we went to the hostel at mile 29 and we’ve been working with them and now this is a chance for us to even give them awards to recognize them so that when ministers and stuff are coming, they always hear or  they’re always portrayed as such bad people but we want to show that no, these people have made a change in themselves and we want to show that achievement.”

The conference starts tomorrow and concludes on Saturday. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamat is present in 214 countries worldwide