Huddersfield’s Ahmadiyya Muslim Community first came together in the early 1960s. According to the community’s President, Munir Ahmed, it had “a very humble beginning” in a terraced house in Hope Street. In those days, he says, the main emphasis was on “collective prayers and also getting young children to read the Holy Qur’an.” While the Ahmadiyya Community are now well established – they’ve been at their present mosque in Fitzwilliam Street for over 30 years – the events of 9/11 have provided them with a new focus to their work both within their community and within the town. Munir Ahmed says: “Since 9/11 it was amazing that the perception of the world has changed towards Muslims…It was important that we focused on peace, we focused on the literal meaning of Islam. We focused on what we needed to do and how to guide those people.”

These are issues which Munir says are discussed openly within the Ahmadiyya community: “We are the only religious group that does have contemporary issues – forced marriages versus arranged marriages. We discuss these issues openly. We tell people about the concept of Jihad, what it is that Islam says. We try to discuss the taboo subjects which are hidden away in the closet and we have a number of Q & A sessions as well as [doing] training both within the mosque and the community.”

Fatih Ul Haq, regional head of the Ansarullah – the Community’s organisation for members over 40 – has been running training sessions for the West Yorkshire Police: “Basically they just want to know about Islam, Jihad and other aspects which can help them to deal with Muslim people.” So far there have been four sessions with over 50 police officers present at each session. Fatih Ul Haq sets out to show that Islam is a religion of peace: “Peace literally means obedience and submission, and it’s an Arabic word which is delivered from Salem which itself means purity, submission and obedience. We try to explain these things – how can you expect a Muslim to be a terrorist or kill somebody. What Islam says is that Islam is a religion of peace so the Qur’an itself says if you kill one person you kill the whole of mankind. Islam in itself does not permit anybody to kill any innocent people or take anybody’s life.” He also seeks to explain the real meaning of Jihad: “Jihad itself is a struggle against your inner self. It’s not what people usually think, that Islam has been spread by the sword.”

Fatih Ul Haq has also been asked what would be the response if police looking for a suspected terrorist wanted to bring dogs into the mosque. He tells them: “If you have this information, if you think it’s very important, and you have to go in with the dogs, in that sense we are not going to stop you.” This is because “Islam is not so strict in itself. The Qur’an itself says if a person is a Muslim and dying of hunger – and he’s not a person who is crossing the boundaries of Islam – and there’s nothing left, in that case he can eat what’s prohibited in Islam, something he can take to survive.” He adds: “Our own community promotes peace and harmony and you will never ever find any terrorism in any Ahmadiyya mosque anywhere in the world.”

Both outside and inside the mosque hangs the motto: ‘Love for all, hatred for none.” Fatih Ul Haq explains: “That’s the motto given by our third Khalifa actually when he went to inaugurate the Spanish mosque which was the first mosque built in Spain in 700 years. When he was coming back in 1982 he gave us this motto. We are trying to act on that motto.”

Yousaf Aftab is the north-eastern regional youth leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association. He says the Association is about promoting peace and living according to the motto: “We actually abide by that ethos and try to practice it. As Muslims we should anyway.” In the last few years members of Huddersfield’s Ahmadiyya Community have been inviting people from across the town to a series of Peace Symposiums to discuss how everyone can work together.

In the last couple of years the Youth Association has linked up with Huddersfield Methodist Mission, joining with them in feeding the homeless on Christmas Day. Munir Ahmed says: “That shows the Christian faith and the Muslim faith working hand in hand. Yet if you look at this in terms of other faiths, and other Muslims, they would say, ‘No, we don’t because we don’t believe in this and we don’t believe in that’. This is where we differ because we feel that all faiths have a common purpose and we’ve all got to work together in terms of similarities.”

The Ahmadiyya community engages actively in social work. In Huddersfield its members have supported many of the town’s charities over the years including the Bodyscanner and Lord Mayor’s Appeal, as well as social projects elsewhere in the world.

On the Muslim holy days of Eil ud Adha and Eid ul Fitr Huddersfield’s Ahmadiyya Muslims hand out chocolates to their neighbours and at Christmas they wish them the season’s greetings. Munir Ahmed says: “We need to make sure that we are celebrating other people’s celebrations as well as our own. I think life is too small, life is too fragile…We all need to make sure we can actually work at the goodness in all religions as opposed to being divisive.”