Why has the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat grown so much in recent years?

Not because of fundamentalism, but because of its opposite. People are drawn to a teaching that is meant for all people, agrees with reason and rejects hatred in the name of God.

Fundamentalism makes religion narrow. It limits it to one people, one country or one group and demands obedience instead of understanding. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat goes the opposite way. Its message is addressed to all people. But a teaching for all people can only stand if it agrees with the reason that is placed within every human being. Whoever listens to this inner voice does not go astray.

When people are addressed in this way, they begin to compare. They see that some religious leaders have sown hatred in the name of God. They see that these leaders have confined their faith to their own race or their own country. Then they understand why they were led astray, and they look for something better.

This is how a new awakening comes about. Thoughtful people in particular find in this teaching what satisfies their thirst for knowledge. Many write that a book or a conversation touched them because it matched their own nature, and that they would like to learn more. No one is pressed into anything, as the second verse above says.

This breadth does not conflict with one’s own homeland. A Briton remains British and a German remains German. One can love one’s country and at the same time belong to the whole of humanity. The first verse above says that God divided people into nations so that they may know one another, not so that they may fight one another.

That is why this growth does not divide any society. It brings together people who were separated before, and that is the opposite of fundamentalism.