Intro
Michael Owen, who is a general assignment reporter for BradfordToday is reporting about in a recorded vote during committee of the whole Tuesday, Sept. 17, five of council’s nine members voted against approving AMJ’s application to host the event from July 4-6, 2025 at the Hadiqa Ahmad Ahmadiyya Community, 3078 Line 11 in Bradford. Only Ward 1 Coun. Cheraldean Duhaney, Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott, Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu and Mayor James Leduc voted in favour of the 2025 event, in contrast to the unanimous support provided last year for the 2024 event. The Sep-17-2024 council meeting can be found herein. Farhan Khokhar (Na’ib Amīr)(Vice President) was there too, he famously said at the 1:42:00 time stamp, “we put Bradford on the map”.
On 10-1-24, the Ahmadiyya Movement showed up in full force to complain about getting denied. The Jalsa was denied by a vote of 5-4. The Ahmadiyya Movement will not be allowed to hold their Jalsa-Canada in Bradford because the City of Bradford can’t handle the load/traffic and etc. Members of the Ahmadiyya Community essentially called council members as racist and bigoted and this was the reason for the refusal. A few residents were upset about comments by Farhan Khokhar (Na’ib Amīr)(Vice President) wherein he said:
“We have placed Bradford on the map”!! This was done in a braggadocio way and some local residents who spoke up about it at the City Council Meeting.
Safwan Choudhry (Director of Media relations) was there (1:14:33 to 1:19:55 time stamp), on 10-1-24, the Ahmadiyya Movement showed up in full force to complain about getting denied. Safwan Choudhry mentioned how every single council member had visited the Jalsa. Safwan Choudhry hella kissed up and praised the Bradford City Council and begged them to change their decision on denial. Safwan Choudhry then mentioned that Ahmadis are persecuted, this is the persecution card, Safwan said that the Jalsa is banned in a few countries. Safwan Choudhry even said that Ahmadi’s have been murdered and their have changes to constitutions to stop Ahmadi’s from practicing their faith openly (what does that even mean, salat in the street?). Safwan Choudhry complained that Ahmadi’s aren’t even allowed to call their places of worship as mosques. In a CTV interview, Safwan Choudhry had boastfully said that the Jalsa Salana Canada in Bradford would be “on our own terms”, residents had complained about this boastfulness too. Safwan Choudhry then lied and said that he only said it this way because Ahmadi’s aren’t allowed to hold the Jalsa in “other countries” (he meant Pakistan).
According to reports from AMJ, the organization had spent more than $1 million locally on the conference including roughly: $143,000 at Home Depot, $140,000 at Battlefield Rental, $115,000 at The Sarjeant Co., $100,000 at Gwillimdale Farms, $28,000 at Petro Canada, $18,000 at Tim Hortons, plus more at Osmows, Walmart, Dollarama, Canadian Tire, Bradford Rental and more.
Continue reading “The city of Bradford, Canada won’t let the Qadiani’s hold their 2025 Jalsa therein” →