Faith founded in 19th century

Mideast Algeria Ahmadis forced to worship underground

ALGIERS, Aug 28, (AFP): Accused of heresy by Islamist extremists and targeted by the authorities, members of Algeria’s tiny Ahmadi community say they have been forced to go underground to worship.

Abderahmane, a 42-year-old trader from Kabylie in northern Algeria, joined the reformist Islamic movement after years as an ultra-conservative Salafist.

People he once called friends reported him to the local imam, who publicly denounced him as an unbeliever.

The imam went on to urge worshippers not to let their children play with Ahmadi children.

“My sister’s engagement was cancelled because her fiance was told I was an unbeliever,” Abderahmane said, still wearing a well-trimmed beard, a long cotton shirt, and three-quarter-length trousers -- the garb of his former life as a Salafist. Founded in late 19th-century India, the Ahmadiyya movement follows the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, an Indian Muslim they believe to be the long-awaited Islamic messiah.

It is anathema to traditional Islamic thinking, and Ahmadis living in many Muslim-majority countries have faced persecution and physical violence.

While Ahmadis consider themselves to be Muslims, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation -- of which Algeria is a member -- declared in 1973 that the movement was not linked to the Muslim faith.

Nonetheless, the faith’s strong missionary drive has gained it an estimated 10 million members in 190 countries around the world.

The movement didn’t begin spreading in Algeria until 2007, when an Ahmadi satellite television channel reached the north African country.

After that, they worshipped freely, if discreetly, for a decade. Few in Algeria had even heard of Ahmadism until last year, when the government crackdown began.

Aissa