Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007
Walkersville may host thousands next year
by Jeremy Hauck | Staff Writer
As the sun began to set on thousands of cars in the Dulles Expo Center parking lot in Chantilly, Va. on Saturday, a handful of boys wearing black and white scarves, signifying their status as members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA youth volunteer corps, manned a shuttle departure point. Three signs advertised destinations: the Hilton Dulles, the Hyatt Dulles and ‘‘other hotels.”
‘‘We sort of have it down in many ways,” said Sohail Husain, media coordinator for the 59th annual three-day convention of the Ahmadi Muslims. ‘‘It’s a great atmosphere for that reason.”
Husain walked back towards the south hall of the expo center, where the male community members milled around before dinner. The Ahmadi women were having their own speakers and rituals in the north hall.
Next year, the group may have to adjust to a new location. The convention, which hosted about 5,500 Ahmadi Muslims this year, may be held in on a Walkersville farm. Walkersville’s Board of Appeals has yet to decide whether it is OK for the group to use the 224-acre Nicodemus Farm, currently owned by David Moxley, as a site for religious activities instead of agriculture.
The group’s first gathering, in 1891, brought 75 Ahmadis together in Qadian, India, according to the program. The Ahmadi messiah, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, then made the conventions a yearly ritual for the predominantly Pakistani sect of Muslims who believe that violence should play no part in religious life.
Although some guests at the convention stayed with other Ahmadis living in the area, most booked rooms at the 29 hotels within an eight-mile radius of the center. Many stayed at the Holiday Inn Select next to the 2,400-space parking lot, and women in flowing, colorful headscarves – ‘‘a sign of modesty,” one said -- made their way between the hotel and north hall throughout the afternoon, often with children in tow.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, about 15,000 strong in the United States, has been holding its annual religious convention – called jalsa salana – for three or four years at the expo center. Before that they gathered in tents on the site of their Silver Spring mosque.
On Saturday afternoon, Muslim men and boys shed their shoes and sat down on a wide expanse of blue carpet, ready to listen to community leaders and guest speakers orate on the principles of the community and current events. One speaker promoted Humanity First, the community’s worldwide disaster-response branch. Another speaker urged loyalty to the U.S. government. The chief of the Montgomery County Department of Police pledged his department’s respect for the Ahmadis.
Lines of masking tape marked where the men should kneel for morning and evening prayers, and a few men paced in their socks, holding signs that read, ‘‘please turn your cell phone off.”
Ijaz Ahmad, 21, of Rochester, N.Y. stood with two of his friends beyond the rim of shoes. Like most of the men and women at the event, getting together with people he hadn’t seen since his last convention was a big reason Ahmad had driven seven hours to participate, he said.
Despite the convention’s formalities — events were scheduled to the nearest five minutes, and even children wore ID badges dangling from lanyards — it seemed casual. Husain traded text messages with his wife, and the audience ebbed and flowed during speeches.
Rabia Chaudhry, who flew to the convention from San Jose, Cal., where she serves as a city councilman’s chief of staff, was among the women attendees.
‘‘It’s sort of an opportunity to come together, and you get refreshed on a lot of topics that are important to the community on an annual basis,” Chauddry said. ‘‘Because we’re going back out into the world to talk about Islam, to defend Islam, in many instances.”
Jamaican-born Tamara Rodney converted to the Ahmadiyya faith from Pentecostal Christianity in 2001, she said, because it presented ‘‘an environment where I can question, and I’m encouraged to find the answers.”
Rodney and her husband – an Ahmadi who brought her to Islam – flew in from Chicago and stayed with other Ahmadis as houseguests. Coming to the convention, Rodney said, ‘‘it’s like you’ve met an old friend, and you catch up, and in catching up, your faith grows.”
