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Twenty Ahmadiyah followers have missed work and school, remaining holed up in the Al-Misbah Mosque in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, since local officials sealed it off on April 4. The security coordinator for the Ahmadiyah Indonesia Congregation, Deden Sudjana, said on Saturday that the Ahmadis were in good condition and would stay in the mosque until the city administration allowed the followers of the minority Muslim sect to practice their religion and remove the fence sealing the mosque. However, officials appear unlikely to honor that request. Deden said that Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi invited the Bekasi Ahmadiyah congregation members to a dialogue on April 11, which he said ended in deadlock and was attended by representatives of the Bekasi branch of the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI). The administration, according to Deden, had agreed to open the mosque only if the Ahmadis removed Islam from their congregation’s name or allowed officials to arrange all services at the mosque, includ

Persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan  News Report December 2012 Report...

An Ahmadi Muslim who was shot in the head in Pakistan has arrived in the UK for treatment and will now claim asylum here in order to avoid returning to his home country. Ummad Farooq, who was in the UK studying in Sunderland on a student visa, had gone home to Karachi for his brother Saad's wedding on the 19 October when the same brother was killed in the attack. He came back to the UK with the bullet still lodged in his head and is now getting treatment at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham - the hospital treating Taliban victim Malala Yousafzai. Ummad Farooq says his family were targeted because his father is the president of the Ahmadiyya community in his locality. Ahmadis are a Muslim sect whose views differ from mainstream Islam. They suffer persecution because of this and in 1974 the Pakistani government declared the sect non-Muslim. He spoke to BBC Asian Network reporter Catrin Nye. You can hear more on this story on  Asian Network Reports  at 13:00 BST a

KARACHI:  Tragedy struck an Ahmedi family in Nawabshah once again when the son was shot at by an unidentified man only a few years after his father was killed. The victim A*, who is a lawyer, was at his brother’s shop – taking a break from his morning work at the district courts – when a man walked up to him, opened fire and disappeared into the crowd. The incident took place at Liaquat Market Road on April 2, according to the victim’s cousin, K. “I heard a gunshot and when I reached on the spot a few people were trying to take him to the hospital in a rickshaw,” the cousin recalled. “He might have been targeted because of his religious beliefs as he had no personal enmity.” Initially, A was rushed to Civil Hospital, Nawabshah, but was later moved to Karachi. “The bullet pierced his liver and the doctors have removed the affected part in a surgery,” said MA Khan, a spokesperson for Ahmediya community, “The bleeding hasn’t stopped until now.” The doctors feel, however, that