The Ahmadiyya Jama'at Muslim community in Belize is holding its 8th annual Jalsa Salana convention this weekend. It's the second time it will be held at their fairly new mosque, the Masjid Noor - which is at mile 1.5 on the George Price Highway - and they're opening the doors for anyone who wants to be a part of the event.
Today in a press conference, the new president of AMJ Belize and the president of AMJ Canada told us more about the convention.
Imam Lal Khan Malik, National President, AMJ Canada
"The objective is to establish the relationship with God and man, and the relationship between man and man. And all kind of conferences you will see that will be for the education of the members and others also, they will have the occasion to observe how we practice the teachings of Islam. And if that attracts somebody, he can also join the community, that is something very important. It is something different than the worldly gatherings where the fun is in the center but here education is in the center, here moral teachings is in the center, here the love for God and love for human being is in the center. So for three days, they will be passed that way. Praying to Allah and learning many things about the teachings of Islam."
Arslan Warraich, President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at
" Everyone is invited and the purpose of this is that we get to see and celebrate those commonalities that we have in our community, that we all work together so it's kind of our way of giving back and saying that all of our friendships mean so much to us and come out and let's enjoy that and then let's also enjoy some food on top of that which I think is never a bad idea. This is not something that only muslims can attend and this is not something that's for someone who loves religion, this is for anybody. So the invitation is out to everyone, there's a jam packed schedule of very interesting speeches and topics that are very necessary in today's day and age. This year His Holiness, the head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim community, he has sent, very graciously, he has sent us the theme for the Jalsa. And every single year we have a different theme and those topics for the speeches will all be surrounding that theme so this year you can learn a lot about what the word "gracious" really means, how does it affect our youth. So these are one of the highlights the we'll have for this convention."
The countries that will be represented at the Jalsa Salana in Belize are Canada, USA, and Honduras. And during the press conference, the two presidents noted that they will fly a flag for Burkina Faso, in western Africa where nine members of their community were recently murdered.
