G

ARUT, West Java: Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said he wanted to disband Ahmadiyah but he did not offer timetable for the sect’s dissolution.

He said that after a long period of contemplation and asking for divine advice, he concluded that banning Ahmadiyah would be the best solution for all the problems relating to the group, which mainstream Muslims view as heretical.

Suryadharma said that Ahmadiyah should abandon Islam and stop using Islamic symbols such as the Koran and mosques.

“If they refuse to join the mainstream, they must not use Islamic symbols,” he said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Suryadharma and strict Muslims have objected to Ahmadiyah’s refusal to acknowledge that Muhammad was Islam’s last prophet.

Local Ahmadiyah leader Rahmat Syukur Maskawan rejected the minister’s ideas, saying that, fundamentally, Ahmadis were Muslims who believed that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the person who continued Muhammad’s propagation of Islam. — JP