The Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission of Ghana has held a day’s knowledge sharing symposium on the institution of Khilafat in Islam.

The symposium, themed: “The Institution of Khilafat in Islam”, organised under the auspices of the Greater Accra branch of Ahmadiyya Muslims in Ghana, also formed part of activities marking this year’s Khilafat Day Celebration.

It was to create public awareness on what it entails to institute Khilafat in Islam and to publicly denounce brutal killings being carried out by militant Islamic groups, namely Boko Haram, ISIS, Taliban and Al-Shaabab, in the name of Khilafat and Islam as a religion.

Speaking at the forum held at the Accra Conference Centre on Sunday, the Ameer and Missionary-in-Charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect in Ghana, Maulvi Mohammed Bin Salih, stated that the symposium was held to enable the Ahmadiyya group to “announce and expose what Khilafat as an Islamic Institution is truly about.”

According to him, numerous militant groups around the world continue to carry out atrocities against their fellow humans on a daily basis all in the name of establishing Khilafat, whereas indeed the institution of Khilafat has nothing to do with violence.

“All the atrocities that have been adopted so far are wrong and unacceptable because Khilafat can only be established on the precept of the Prophet,” he said, arguing that “Khilafat has already been established in the world.”

The Principal of Jamia Ahmadiyya International School, Maulvi Fareed Ahmad Naveed, in a presentation on the subject, said “the so-called religious groups who are trying to use the name Khilafat for misleading people” cannot be said to be Muslims because for him true Muslims understand that Islam as a religion does not promote violence or hatred among mankind.

“These terrorist groups, whatever they do for their personal motives in the name of religion, does not have any relation with Islam,” he argued and added that “they do not have any [relationship] with the Holy Prophet who instructed his followers to seek knowledge.”

He stressed that the “Quran stand witness that they do not have anything to do with Islam and Institution of Khilafat. Quran rejects their ideology and false claims.”

According to him, instead of followers of such religious groupings propagating peace and love for all humanity irrespective of race, creed or tribe, “they are beheading innocent people, promoting bloodshed and killings in the name of their so-called God.”

He noted that Khilafas are people chosen by God “to stand up and call the world to good deeds” and not persons who perpetrate violence and atrocities for their own selfish motives.