Persecution of Ahmadis Persecution of Ahmadis The Ahmadiyya sect of Islam has been subject to various forms of religious persecution and discrimination since the movement's inception in 1889. The Ahmadiyya Muslim movement emerged from the Sunni tradition of Islam and its adherents believe in all the five pillars and articles of faith required of Muslims. Ahmadis are considered non-Muslims by many mainstream Muslims since they consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the movement, to be the promised Mahdi and Messiah awaited by the Muslims. The Ahmadis are active translators of the Qur'an and proselytizers for the faith. However, in a number of
Divisions of the world in Islam law, the major division are "dar al-islam" (lit. territory of Islam), denoting regions where Islamic law prevails, "dar al-sulh" (lit. territory of treaty) denoting non-Islamic lands which have concluded an armistice with a Muslim government, and "dar al-harb" (lit. territory of war), denoting adjoining non-Islamic lands whose rulers are called upon to accept Islam. Early Islamic jurists devised these terms to denote legal rulings for ongoing Muslim conquests almost a century after Muhammad. The first use of the terms was in Iraq by Abu Hanifa and his disciples Abu Yusuf and Al-Shaybani. Among those in the Levant, Al-Awza'i was leading