IN WHAT organisers called one of the biggest Muslim gatherings in the Western world, tens of thousands of faithful gathered this weekend in a green and pleasant part of southern England and affirmed their loyalty to their caliph. Does that mean an Islamic revolution is in progress? No, nothing of the kind. For Ahmadiyya or Ahmadi Muslims, the caliphate or supreme leadership of their worldwide community is a purely spiritual function; they see it as a point of principle that people should be loyal and useful citizens of whichever country they live in. That's one reason why the three-day proceedings included the ceremonial hoisting of the British flag. The current caliph (pictured) made clear his view that Britain, where he resides, would benefit from more frequent public declarations of loyalty to Queen and country; for example, there could be an American-style pledge of allegiance to the flag in British schools. For all its exuberance, the 50th annual gathering of Ahmadis from around the world (known as a Jalsa Salana) takes place under a shadow: the apparent spread of anti-Ahmadi hatred from the Muslim world to the Western diaspora. This is a religious group that has long faced persecution from the authorities, and from hostile compatriots, in Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan and Indonesia. What divides mainstream Muslims from Ahmadis is the latter's conviction that their founder, a religious teacher called Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who died in 1908, was a prophet; the mainstream Islamic belief is that there has been no prophet since Muhammad died in the seventh century, and that anybody who says otherwise cannot be called a Muslim.

In the newly published annual report on religious freedom by the American State Department (which includes a grim estimate that only a quarter of the world's population enjoys liberty of conscience), it is recalled that in Pakistan, Ahmadis have virtually no legal right to exist.

According to the constitution and penal code, Ahmadis are not Muslims and may not call themselves Muslims or assert they are adherents of Islam. The penal code bans them from preaching or propagating their religious beliefs, proselytising or "insulting the religous feelings of Muslims." The punishment for violation of these provisions is imprisonment for up to three years and a fine.

This year anti-Ahmadi hatred seemed to break out in Britain, with the murder in March of a popular Glasgow shop-keeper called Asad Shah. His family had moved to Britain in the 1990s in the hope that life for Ahmadis would be easier than in Pakistan. But Pakistan's religious passions have clearly been felt in Britain; it emerged in April that literature urging the killing of Ahmadis was being circulated in at least one London mosque. The assassin, from the northern English city of Bradford, openly declared his intention of punishing his victim for "disrespecting" Islam, and in particular, for having wished his Christian neighbours a happy Easter. This week, the murderer was sentenced to at least 27 years in jail for what a Scottish judge described as a "barbaric, premeditated, wholly unjustified killing of a much-loved man who was a pillar of the local community." She added: "I note with considerable concern that you have expressed no remorse whatever."

The story suggests a wider point. Back in the 1990s, when American officaldom was first mandated by Congress to start making annual assessments of the state of religious liberty round the world, there was widespread confidence in Western capitals that liberal-democratic norms, including religious liberty, would steadily be established in those countries which still oppresssed their citizens and curbed their freedom to believe and worship. That missionary confidence is now greatly diminished. But that makes it doubly important that Western governments use all their might at least to protect their own subjects from brutal assaults on freedom of thought. Families like that of Asad Shah, who look to Western democracies as a beacon, must not be disappointed. Or to put it another way, the Ahmadis should feel they are getting something in return for their loyalty to the flag.