New Delhi: At a time when India is facing crucial questions on Muslim personal laws, members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, a minority sect among Muslims, have denounced All India Muslim Personal Law Board's (AIMPLB) stand on triple talaq calling it "baseless". The Ahmadiyya leaders have also condemned the persecution that they face from Maulvis and Ulemas in India, who they said "are of the same breed like that of their Pakistani counterparts".

Speaking to News18, Shiraz Ahmed, additional executive director of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, said "Triple Talaq as a concept is against Quran and it must be abolished."

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"A marriage in Islam is based on love and compassion where the question of divorce does not arise. But even then, if the situation of divorce crops up, then the mandatory period of reconciliation and mediation has to be followed as prescribed. Divorcing in one sitting needs to be scrapped. If the judiciary thinks that it is not lawful then such a practice should be abolished," said Ahmed.

About a million Ahmadiyyas — who believe that there was another Holy Prophet after Prophet Muhammad, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad from Qadian, Punjab, who started this sect in 1889 — live in different parts of India.

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Looked down upon by other Muslim sects, they face severe persecution across the world, especially in Pakistan which has constitutional provisions debarring them the right to be called Muslims.

Ahmed said his community feels safer in a secular India than in Pakistan. He said Pakistan's laws are against human rights and Islam. In Pakistan, Ahmadis continue to be targeted by religious hardliners and terror groups. In May 2010, nearly 100 Ahmadis were massacred in attacks on two mosques of the Ahmadi sect in Lahore. This year, there have been several killings of our community members, the latest being that of a medical professional.

"Pakistan has state-sponsored or legal persecution of our community members… India is secular and we feel safe here. But even here in areas like Bengal and all, we feel like a minority within a minority where Maulvis and Ulemas, who are of the same breed like that of their Pakistan counterparts, give hate speeches to target specific households and make life difficult for us," said the Jamaat member.

He said a ban on cow slaughter or beef does not hamper his community's religious beliefs and should be allowed to promote secular harmony. "Our prophet, in 1908, wrote a book 'Message of Peace', where he stated that if consuming beef hurts the religious sentiments of Hindus, then we must forego it. Beef is banned in Punjab where our sect originated... if such a ban can solve communal issues, then it must be allowed," said Ahmed.

The Ahmaddiya community leaders are in the process of writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi citing how Triple Talaq in one sitting is not Quranic and are also stating that Nikah Halala is something which is "prohibited" in the religion.

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