If every British Muslim was an Ahmadiyya or even an Ismaili Muslim, would the public view of Islam and its followers be as hostile as it currently is? My view is that it would not and that is because these two paths within Islam are notable for their peacefulness, which is probably why groups like the Ahmadiayya in particular are persecuted by mainstream Muslims.

If every British Muslim was as integrated, law abiding, peaceful and contributory as a large number of Ahmadiyya and Ismaili Muslims are, then who in their right mind would have a problem with them? After all, nobody with any sense or any sort of decency, has a problem with Hindus or Sikhs or Buddhists, even though their religious paths may be radically different from mine and your own.

I, along with a great many other non-Muslims, may have theological views that are the polar opposite of that of either the Ismaili or the Ahmadiyya paths of Islam, but these paths are not as problematical as other paths within Islam. For example: I don’t fear the followers of these minority paths for either supremacism or violence reasons, in the same way as I fear the culture, politics and followers of mainstream Sunni and Shia Islam. I also do not see the followers of the minority peaceful sects of Islam corrupting our electoral system, committing horrendous crimes, becoming involved in jihad or exploiting the nation’s welfare system, to anything like the extent done by those in mainstream Islam.

I truly believe that if every single Muslim in Britain was of the Ahmadiyya or Ismaili persuasion, then the disgust, that is transmuting into hatred for the ideology of Islam, would be much less. As anyone who criticises Islam will probably know, the stock response to criticism from mainstream Sunni or Shia Muslims of either the theology of Islam, Shariah Law or of the character of the Islamic prophet, is often a death threat. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve seen the words ‘die kufar die’ coming from the keyboards and lips of mainstream Muslims when some unfortunately but true fact is brought out about Islam or its prophet. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like the level of violent hostility from either Ahmediyya or Ismaili Muslims that I have got from more Orthodox Muslims. My own personal experience of the Ahmadiyya and to a lesser extent the Ismailis, is that they are forward looking, relatively open minded and just keep their heads down and get on with life.

It would be great, really great if every British Muslim was an Ahmadiyya or an Ismaili. The Ahmadiyyas mostly work hard, respect education and obey the law of the land. The Ismailis have from the mid-20^th century onward, recognised that the world that we all live in is one radically different to that of previous centuries and they have embraced and funded education including education for girls. Even a look at the leaders of these minority Islamic movements shows a great difference between these paths and other paths. Neither the Caliph of Ahmadiyya Islam Mirza Masroor Ahmad,or the Chief Imam of the Ismailis, the Aga Khan, are the sort of religious dictators and tyrants that head up other branches of Islam, such the Saudi Royals and Al Azar University for Sunnis, or the Iranian Ayatollahs for the Shias. As I said I may not agree with the theology of these minority paths of Islam and I may also think that they are trying in some cases to ‘polish a turd’ when it comes to Mohammed and his message, their hearts appear to be in the correct and peaceful place.

Unfortunately as desirable as it might be, the reality is that neither the Ahmadiyya nor the Ismailis make up the majority of British Muslims. The majority of British Muslims come in the main from Sunni and to a lesser extent Shia Islam and these paths are notable for their often violent hostility to non Muslims. In Britain we have had an Ahmadiyya shopkeeper murdered by an orthodox Sunni Muslim for wishing Britain’s Christian community ‘happy Easter’ and the Caliph of Ahmadiyya is in exile in London because of violence against Ahmadiyya Islam in the sects native land of Pakistan. The Ismailis, are also one of the few branches of Islam that insists that it is a woman’s own choice whether she covers her hair or not and this puts them at odds with the majority of the Imams in British mosques, which are mostly controlled by or influenced by the very conservative Deobandi current of Islam. An Ismaili man is no more likely to want to force his wife or daughters into a hijab or a burkah, than I am likely to want to force my wife to wear the sheitel or wig that traditional married Jewish women wear, even though to me, her hair is more beautiful ‘than a flock of goats’ (Song of Solomon 4:1).

No matter how peaceful, how integrated or how committed they are to modernity and coexisting with those of other faiths, we must never forget that both the Ahmadiyya and the Ismailis are absolute minorities when it comes to Islam in both Britain and the wider world. I think that the Ahmadiyyas and the Ismailis should be nurtured and protected as the followers of any other peaceful faith should be, but they should not be mistaken as representatives of the greater Islamic religious world. Although these minority religious paths within Islam are compatible with other societies and other cultures, that doesn’t mean we can take the same view towards other sects or paths within Islam. When you see the various surveys taken of British Muslim opinion which large minorities of those surveyed who approve of violence against Islam’s critics, then we are looking at mainstream Islam not the ‘out there’ minority peaceful sects. It’s not the Ahmadiyya or the Ismailis who are shouting ‘death, death, death to the infidel’ or who are pushing their views and their mores on the rest of us, it’s the followers of mainstream Islam that are doing that.

The fact that the reformers and the peaceful paths within Islam are such an absolute minority should cause us concern. It should remind us of the true core of Islam which is one of violence, oppression and supremacism. This fact should also cause us to see that although groups like the Ahmadiyya and the Ismailis are not problematical and have gone a long way to neutralise the poison that is within Islamic theology, culture and history, they are not the ones who are calling the shots in Islam. Sadly, it’s the Sunni and mainstream Shia paths of Islam, with their violence, supremacism, intolerance or misogyny, that are doing that.

I’d love it, I’d really truly love it, if every British Muslim was of the Ahmadiyya or Ismaili persuasion, but that’s not the case and the majority of British Muslims follow paths that would quite happily tell their followers to murder Ismailis and Ahmadiyyas as apostates. With Islam it seems the lunatics run the asylum and the sane ones are the ones who are excluded. Because the lunatics run the Islamic asylum is a damn good reason why anybody who cares about religious or personal freedoms should be opposed to the ideology of the current majority of the asylum managers.