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
Islam in the United States into prison as non-Muslims. He also says that 80% of the prisoners who "find faith" while in prison convert to Islam. These converted inmates are mostly African American, with a small but growing Hispanic minority. Waller also asserts that many converts are radicalized by outside Islamist groups linked to terrorism, but other experts suggest that when radicalization does occur it has little to no connection with these outside interests. There were calculated to be 2.595 million Muslim adherents across the United States in 2010. Islamic populations are 0.6% of the US population per Fareed Zakaria quoting Pew Research Center, 2010.