AFTER a decade-long search for a permanent home, Canberra’s Ahmadiyya community will lay the foundation stone of their new Narrabundah mosque in a special ceremony on Sunday (March 21).

First destined for Rivett, the mosque’s Imam, Ahmed Nadeem, says the new $4 million building will house up to 300 worshippers – twice the size of the current congregation – and will be two-storeys in size, with a minaret.

It won’t just provide the community with a place of worship, but also a place to gather and an opportunity for better community outreach, says Ahmed, who is also the ACT’s highest Ahmadi representative – an active translator of the Quran and proselytiser for the faith. 

Once constructed, he says it will allow the congregation to take part in Red Cross blood donations, tree planting, as well as Clean Up Australia Day and various charity events across Australia.

But that’s still some time off. 

For now, Ahmed says the community has rolled up its sleeves. Much of the funding has come from the community itself and the labour from its members, young and old. 

“You can imagine the amount of financial sacrifices that individuals had to make,” says Ahmed, who explains some members of the community even sold their cars to donate to the new centre, in service of their faith.

Even the Imam – a usually immaculately put-together figure of faith – has got to work.

“I’ve even learnt how to drive the bobcat,” he says, dressed in fluorescent workwear and gumboots when he met with “CityNews”.

Meanwhile, younger members have levelled the ground.

“They want to give as much as they can, not just financially,” he says. 

“We believe this is where God chose the mosque for the capital, for the community.”

Ahmed believes the hard work of the community reflects the trials that the Islamic sect and its followers have faced globally.

Born out of modern-day Pakistan in the mid-nineteenth century, the Ahmadiyya have faced relentless persecution from religious purists.

Unlike mainstream Muslim sects who often consider them to be heretical, the Ahmadiyya believe that their messiah, Ghulam Ahmed, is a prophesied religious redeemer. For most Muslims, meanwhile, the prophet Muhammad is the definitive and final prophet.

Ahmadi faith leaders resided in native Pakistan up until the 1980s when new laws introduced by the then-military junta stripped the Ahmadiyya of the ability to even call themselves Muslim.

“This is a great blessing to us, that not only has the God almighty given us the ability to build us a mosque, but the ability to call it a mosque,” says Ahmed.

“Right now, in Pakistan, its part of the law that we are considered non-Muslim.

“If I were to call it a mosque in Pakistan, I would be jailed.”

The current Caliph, or faith leader akin to a Pope, is Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who resides in exile in London.

In a special moment for the community, Ahmed says Caliph Miraz Masroor blessed the foundation stone which came all the way from London.

The stone will add to the construction of what, Ahmed says, is one of only three purpose-built Ahmadi mosques in Australia.

Ahmed, who first studied in Canada before stints as a missionary in Africa and later coming to Australia, says the welcome he and the community has received in Australia has been important.

Many of his congregation have come not just from India and Pakistan, but from west African countries like Nigeria, Ghana. 

“We are very fortunate to be in a country like Australia,” says Ahmed.

And, in Canberra, more specifically, he says the community have also received the support of locals and faith leaders.

Currently situated opposite the Spanish-Australian Club of Canberra and down the road from the Harmonie German Club of Canberra, Ahmed says the mosque has been welcomed by their multicultural neighbours.

The new mosque, he says, will also help them better connect with other religious groups in Canberra, such as fellow Muslims, who, he says, haven’t shown the Ahmadi any hostility.

Once the foundation stone is laid and work is underway, Ahmed says it will take around a year before the mosque is completed, by which time, he hopes that Caliph Miraz Masroor will be able to inaugurate it.

And in the meantime, Ahmed says the congregation will stay at their temporary Fyshwick centre. 

The public is welcome to attend the event where the foundation stone will be laid at 4 Narupai Street, Narrabundah, 11am, Sunday, March 21.