Fourteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat (AMJ) is a messianic organisation which is declared ‘heretical’ by majority Muslim sects. Ahmadiyya Muslims are the most persecuted minority within the Islamic faith. Following persecutions, they migrated to Western countries, setting headquarters and central Caliphate in the UK. Presently, AMJ claim their presence in more than 190 countries.The Ahmadiyya Jamaat operates as a highly effective religious bureaucracy with elected office bearers and various departments serving to achieve a global unified Ahmadiyya community. The organisational structure is the same in all countries of their presence while connecting to the ‘one caliph in the UK’, who is referred to them as a ‘moon among stars’. The Ahmadies express their love for the Caliphate through pilgrimages and correspondence from all over the world. My ethnographic research spanning 2021-2023 explores how the institution of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate is organised and the relationship between second generation Ahmadi Muslims growing up integrating in the secular society of Finland and UK while attaining western education. My work contends that through organised religious tactics, rhetorical poetry, media, and bureaucracy, the love for Caliphate flourishes from childhood, which includes efforts of both Family and Jamaat sites through various educational and social programs. In simple words, the project explores the ‘social construction of Devotee’s love for Caliphate’. This love further consolidates when Ahmadis are discriminated against by ‘other Muslims’ and right-wing populists in Europe. This study is part of ethnographic doctoral research on AMJ Finland and the first one to study AMJ dynamics in Finnish context.