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When it was first built, it was surrounded by farm fields. Of late, these victims of Toronto's relentless suburban sprawl have been replaced by acres of housing tracts and shopping malls. One of Canada's largest malls, Vaughn Mills, sits across the street housing 250 stores on over 1 million square feet of indoor retail space - you can even go fishing in the outdoor equipment store. But if one looks a bit more closely, one might notice something a bit different: cruise some of the nearby streets and you'll notice streets named Bashir, Zafrulla Khan and Abdus Salam. You would also notice a massive masjid visible from miles away when it's lit up at night. Houses in this neighborhood sell for upwards of $500,000 (~£240,000) and feature extra powerful kitchen exhausts for expelling the scents of pakoras and curry, as well as dual family rooms to keep the uncles and aunties segregated during parties. A Muslim utopia? Before you sell your house near the markaz in Dewsbury, better think twice. The Peace Village, as it is known, is actually home to an enclave of the Qadiani heretical sect - the Ahmadiya Movement. Instead of being reviled, this particular "Muslim ghetto" is a favorite visiting place of politicians, with the Prime Minister himself having made a pilgrimage as well as having attended their annual convention. Compare this to the sad tale of Hassanville, the first official Muslim community in Canada, located several hundred kilometres northeast of Toronto. This small rural settlement of mostly African-American convert Muslims does a modest trade in halaal meat, poultry and produce. From its inception, it drew the ire of local Polish-Canadian settlers, themselves refugees of poor treatment in Europe. Searching Hassanville on Google reveals how successfully this group has managed to survive excessive scrutiny. However, sure enough, after 9/11 charges surfaced of Hassanville in fact being part of a clandestine network of Jihadist training camps - because of course, everyone knows that Muslims + nature = jihad training. The fact that no raids, arrests or convictions have ever been made in relation to these allegations says a lot about their veracity - especially considering the fact that having jihadi videos on your hard-drive is a criminal offence. If there was any hint of dodgyness, it would have been played for all it was worth. It is instructive to study why exactly the Peace Village gets such kid-glove treatment while a few converts on a farm get the full-terrorist shakedown. Without going into the theocratic details of the Ahmadiya sect, a few quotes from Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, the founder of the sect, should suffice: "What I recite unto you is the word of God in the same way as the Qur'an and the Torah were the words of God. I am Zilli (Shadow) and Buruzi (Apparent) Prophet of God and every Muslim is obliged to obey me in religious matter. Anyone who does not consider me an arbiter in his affairs, nor recognises me as the promised Messiah, nor my revelation from God, is liable to be punished in the Heavans..." (Tuhfat al-Nubuwwa 1902 - collection of letters written by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, p.4) "When I received the revelation foretelling the death of my father, human weakness made me think that since some of the sources of the income of our family would cease with my father's death, we might be put in trouble." (Mirza Ghulam quoted in "The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement", by Muhammad Ali, p. 7; also see Roohani Khazain vol.13 p.194) While this might be objectionable to Muslims, the reason this sect has such good relations with western governments can only be appreciated by studying the role the Ahmadis played during the British Raj. Referring to the imposition of Martial Law in India following WWI to suppress the movements of independence, Mirza Ghulam writes: "I am an amulet and a citadel to protect the English Government from afflictions. God has given me the glad tidings that He would not chastise the English as long as I (Mirza) was amidst them." (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Nur al-Haq, 1894, p.34) "I wanted to create in the hearts of the Muslims love for the English and obliterate the idea of jihad from the minds of stupid Muslims. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims were convinced by me." (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, in letter to Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, dated 24th February 1898) "At that previous hour everyone felt afraid except the Ahmadiyya Jama'at, which in the capacity of a party, fully cooperated with the British." (AlFazl Qadian 4 April 1938) During those times, the Qadianis proved invaluable to the British Raj, cooperating in the subversion of the independence movement as well as serving as effective spies. Being indistiguishable from orthodox Sunni Muslims in either name or appearance, they proved to be ideal moles. This relationship continues to the present. "And from amongst the people are some who say: 'We believe in Allah and the Last Day'; but they are not believers. They seek to deceive Allah and those who believe, but they deceive only themselves without realizing it. In their hearts is a disease, so Allah has increased their disease, and for them is a painful chastisement for the lies that they propagated." (Surah Baqarah, Verses 8-10)
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