As part of their continued efforts to promote peace in society, this Australia Day, members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose place of worship is in Stockleigh, are running a “Muslims for Loyalty” campaign.
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Followers of their faith are being reminded by their Imam that they should love and be loyal to Australia, as one of the teachings of the Islamic faith is love of country.
Members of the community are gearing up for an Australia Day celebration on January 26 including a barbecue and a Australian flag raising ceremony at their Mosque.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association which has mosques in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide will distribute half a million loyalty-to-homeland leaflets across the country as part of their Australia Day campaign.
Imam Ahmed Nadeem of the Stockleigh based Al-Masroor Mosque said Ahmaddiyya Muslims seek to promote the true teachings of Islam as explained by their founder, the Promised Messiah, His Holiness, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian.
One of those teachings is 'Love of one’s country of residence is part of a Muslim’s faith'.
"The actual purpose of the campaign is to remove this misconception about Islam, that Islam is a religion which promotes violence and does not promote loyalty to your country," he said.
"It's not loyalty of one's country where he was born it's where he resides.”
"If you live here, if Australia shelters you, if you have a house in Australia, then you have to show loyalty and reverence towards that country and you have to be willing to defend it and respect the laws and promote kindness and compassion within that country."
Included in the leaflets is a quote from chapter four, verse 60 of the Koran which reminds Muslims to obey those in authority, as well as a quote from the holy prophet Mohammed which reminds Muslims that love of one’s country of residence is part of their faith.
Ahmadiyya Muslim community media secretary Zain Baig said the Mosque’s members always celebrate our national day, including inviting their neighbours, local politicians and the general public to enjoy their celebrations.
"We always try to do an Australia day event and create awareness of the basic injunction which is loyalty to country and abiding by laws and respect to authority is part of our faith,” he said.
They have a Twitter hashtag to help spread their message of loyalty to a much wider audience called #MuslimsForLoyalty.
"We can only reach out with the leaflets within our boundaries, wherever we are, but through social media and twitter we can reach out to those people who are out of our boundaries and living in separate parts of the world. It's just for the general public but also for Muslims who are oblivious to these teachings," Imam Ahmed Nadeem said.
The Ahmadiyya Muslims are also active contributors to the wider community, regularly giving back in areas such as disaster relief, donating blood, and promoting interfaith harmony, as well as integrating themselves with their neighbours in the Stockleigh area.
"Two weeks ago we invited all the neighbours around here to come to the mosque, some of them it was their first time ever in any mosque, they came here and asked questions and a lot of misconceptions were removed, and they said they feel much more relaxed with Islam and it's teachings," Mr Nadeem said.
"What we did was we raised a barbecue and it was a very good atmosphere. There were no speeches. They enjoyed the barbecue and then they asked me, as the Imam, any questions they had."
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Stockleigh will celebrate Australia day with a community barbecue from 5pm.
