By Adil Khan

     Monday, May 30th, 2016 was Memorial Day. This day is dedicated to the remembrance of those in the armed forces who have died in service to our country. I am grateful for the sacrifices that these individuals have made. In the patriotic song, “God bless America”, which I learned in elementary school, we learned to say “God bless America, land that I love”. This emotion is strongly felt especially during this holiday.

     I am an Ahmadi Muslim, and I have a deep love for my home. I remember back when I was pursuing my undergraduate writing degree at Johns Hopkins University a few years ago that I had come into a glass pavilion to donate blood. I came in to sign up, and the elderly women who were sitting behind the counter read my expression. They asked me what was wrong. I replied that I was sad. The reason, I explained, was that I was remembering September 11th, the single deadliest nondomestic attack upon the United States. I would like the reader to imagine me, a passionate, devout Muslim, a Pakistani-American young man standing there to donate blood in remembrance of my fellow countrymen and women who were killed on that day. You may have a hard time even imagining such a scenario, but I assure you that this was real.

     I would like to point out that for the majority of my time at Hopkins the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association had been sponsoring the annual JHU-Red Cross blood drives that occurred around September 11th as a part of the national Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s Muslims for Life campaign where it was and is still our goal to save more lives than the so-called Muslim terrorists have taken. Unlike those who believe in a politicized “jihad” of the sword, the Ahmadi Muslims believe that now is the time for a peaceful Jihad of the self as well as a Jihad of the pen. I would also like to point out that although Hopkins, my alma mater, is considered to be a liberal institution at the forefront of learning and diverse, progressive thought, my group was pulled aside and told that we were not allowed to distribute the Muslims for Life tee shirts that we had been giving out as a part of our effort to sponsor blood drives on campus. One has to ask, is this the same type of “progressive” thought that exists in Switzerland that is trying to make young Muslim men pay a fine of over $5000 for sticking to what they believe in by not shaking the hands of female teachers, or that “forward-thinking” philosophy that is striving to take away the personal freedom of chaste young women in Europe by banning the hijab? Whatever happened to freedom of conscience? I know that that is what my master, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) came to establish in the world. What do these other so-called promoters of progress have to say for themselves?

     Don’t get me wrong. I definitely do not mean to say that the so-called Muslim World is superior in terms of religion and morality or secular laws. According to the Ahmadiyya viewpoint they have completely gone astray from the teachings of my beloved Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), much like the tribes of Israel had gone astray from the teachings of Moses during the time of the prophet Jesus Christ. We Ahmadis, stewards and promoters of peace, are being martyred constantly in this so-called Muslim World (see the torture that the prophet Jesus Christ suffered at the hands of so-called “guardians of faith” in Jerusalem). Looking at the history of the world it often seems that the most moderate, balanced, and peaceful groups of people are the most looked down upon and persecuted from every side. As Ahmadi Muslims, we often face persecution in many so-called Muslim countries. Take for example our community’s mosque in Central Java, Indonesia on Monday the 23rd of May which was burned to the ground by so-called Muslims last Sunday night. There is a picture of a Qur’an which was burned in the attack on the mosque circulating on the web. How backwards are these people! They should join forces with Pastor Terry Jones. Whether they know it or not they are on the same team. We can expect as much since we learned from French journalist Mr. Didier Francois that he did not see a single Qu’ran despite being held hostage by ISIS for 10 months. We Ahmadi Muslims, followers of  True Islam (trueislam.com), are indeed fortunate and thankful for the religious freedom provided in this country allowing us to freely and openly practice our faith.

     According to the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him), “Love of one’s country is a part of faith” (Sakhavi). As such, I, and all Ahmadi Muslims, followers of True Islam, love this nation and the many rights and privileges it provides us. We understand and acknowledge that our Veterans are critical in ensuring these freedoms and rights and are in gratitude to their service. In the same breath, we implore servicemen and women and our country’s leaders to operate on principles of justice and strive to prevent the loss of innocent life in the operations currently being carried out. As one example, I most painfully ask that in the name of God, please imagine the innocent women and children who are being killed, whose lives are being destroyed in airstrikes in the Middle East. They are simply being dismissed as “collateral damage”. If our children, our wives, and our mothers, our sisters were to be killed and blown to pieces by airstrikes upon our beautiful country, “America, Land that I love”, could we even begin to imagine how we would feel? Could any of us? For this I ask that we remember the beautiful Golden Rule that our beloved God Almighty has made common throughout various revealed religions, namely ‘treat others how you would like to be treated’.