Security services in April arrested a group of people belonging to the “Ahmadiyya Qadiani” religious sect, an offshoot of Islam, who were found performing rituals traditionally associated with pilgrimages to Mecca in the Cairo district of Moqattam, in violation of Islamic Law.
The group was charged with disseminating an ideology that contravenes Islam and inciting sectarian strife in contempt for religion.
The group is said to claim that Mohamed was not the last prophet to be sent by God–a mainstay of orthodox Islam–and that Gabriel, the angel sent by God to reveal the Koran to Mohamed, has also appeared to sect leader Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani and his successors.
Members of the group believe that Qadiani is the messiah who will be resurrected from his grave in the Indian city of Qadian at the end of times. They further believe that pilgrimages should be performed to his tomb in India–and not to Mecca in Saudi Arabia–and describe as infidels anyone who does not subscribe to these beliefs.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the group is financed by the membership fees paid by its followers, and that members meet once a week in Moqattam to read their leader’s weekly Internet sermon.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
