Intro
Lieutenant Colonel Ashar Zahur Butt (retired from the Pakistani military) is a Qadiani-Ahmadi living in Bradford, Canada for over 20 years. He was never persecuted in his life.
In 2024, after the Ahmadiyya Movement got denied permits for its 2025 Jalsa-Salana Canada, he wrote a letter to Bradfordtoday and complained about it. He also gave testimony at the 10-1-2024 Town Council meeting in Bradford.
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1950
He was born in roughly 1950.
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1970
He seems to have joined the Pakistani military as an officer.
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2000
He seems to have retired from the Pakistani military and moved to Canada
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2024
He wrote a letter to the Bradfordtoday website complaining about Ahmadi’s getting denied the permit to hold a convention in Bradford.
Mr. Butt
He is an Ahmadi and a resident of Bradford, Canada. He is backwards like the other desi guys. He is also a local office holder for the AMJ. He said that he doubts that the council is following concepts of diversity and etc. He said Ahmadi’s went door-to-door and invited the whole town of Bradford. He said traffic is not a good reason to stop this convention. In a backwards way, he said if it was a musical concert, no one would have said anything, but now it is like the sky is falling. He said he was in the military for 25 years, he knows how to manage traffic. He doesn’t understand how the infastructure in Bradford can’t handle 10k+ people gathering on a small parcel of land and how it affects the whole town. He said that there were undertones of racial and religious bias in the final voting. He said some of the people who commented were being racist.
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LETTER: Refusal to host Muslim conference ‘deeply concerning’
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BradfordToday welcomes letters to the editor at dave@villagemedia.ca or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). This letter is in response to Bradford council’s decision to nix plans to host a massive Muslim conference.
The refusal to grant the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat permission to hold its Annual Convention 2025, in Bradford, Ontario, is deeply concerning and raises important questions about inclusivity, accommodation, and fairness in Canada’s approach to religious minorities.
The Ahmadiyya community, having faced religious persecution in their home countries, particularly in Pakistan, sought refuge in Canada, a country known for its diversity, tolerance, and protection of human rights. For many members, this decision by the local city council to deny their request on the basis of particularly traffic congestion is more than an administrative setback—it’s a symbol of the exclusion they hoped to escape. This denial mirrors, in some respects, the systemic barriers and injustices they fled from, further exacerbating the emotional pain of a community already marginalized.
While traffic congestion or other issues may be of legitimate concern, the situation could have been handled with greater sensitivity and a problem-solving mindset. Rather than an outright refusal, the city council could have worked with the community to explore feasible alternatives—traffic management plans, event logistics support etc —while still allowing the convention to take place. This would demonstrate not only a commitment to accommodating the rights of the Ahmadiyya community but also a willingness to work together to resolve logistical challenges.
Canada, as a multicultural society, is built on the values of respect, inclusion, and equality. Denying this community the opportunity to gather and express their faith in peace sends a message of exclusion and undermines those very values. The disappointment and heartbreak felt by the Ahmadiyya community in Bradford and across Canada, highlight the importance of ensuring that our institutions and policies do not inadvertently perpetuate the same patterns of marginalization that refugees and persecuted groups experience in their countries of origin.
Regards,
Lt Col (R) Ashar Zahur Butt
Bradford ON
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Links and Related Essay’s
Bradford City Council meeting on Oct-1-2024 vs. Ahmadiyya firqa in Canada – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog
Bradford City Council meeting on Oct-1-2024 vs. Ahmadiyya firqa in Canada
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Tags
#ahmadiyya #ahmadiyyafactcheckblog #messiahhascome #ahmadiyyat #trueislam #ahmadianswers #mirzaghulamahmad #qadiani #qadianism
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