Crawley Muslims share message of peace with poetry

The ‘Poets For Peace’ evening on Saturday April 2 attracted many distinguished guests in and around the area, including the Crawley mayor, Chris Cheshire and deputy mayor, Raj Sharma together with other faith leaders from.

Participants young and old embraced it as an opportunity to share the peaceful teachings of Islam presented from a poetical perspective.

The event also proved to be an excellent mechanism to improve better understanding between faith and community groups in order to develop a more harmonious society and promote integration and develop good neighbourly values.

Some 12 poets took part sharing a variety of inspirational poetry to an audience of over 70 people.

Many came from around the UK including London, Birmingham and Nottingham.

Creative 13-year-old Farah Khan from Pound Hill also presented her wonderful poem specially written for the occasion.

Ahsan Ahmadi, regional president of the AMA UK and part of organising committee stated: “The key to the event was that the poets were mostly youths and all were sending out a clear message that their Islam only teaches and promotes peace.

“They all denounced terrorism in any shape and form. I was very impressed as were the guests.”

Haider Jameel, himself a poet who started this group, added: “Our aim is to engage our youth in positive thinking, and the AMA very successfully is doing this.

“They have given us this platform for our youth to speak and share their thoughts through poetry.

“Crawley gave us a wonderful reception which shows what a wonderful town this is.”

Poets for Peace is a nationwide initiative by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which has prided itself on building strong communities ever since the faith’s first UK mosque opened in London in 1926.

Dr Rizwan, the event co-ordinator said: “Our aim is to promote loyalty to the country we live in and conveying the message of peace is one way of showing this loyalty.”

The event concluded with a meal provided by the Crawley Ahmadiyya Muslim Community which gave an opportunity for guests to mingle and share goodwill with one another whilst enjoying the wonderful Pakistani and Indian dinner.

Some of the poems from the event can be found on the website www.PoetsForPeace.co.uk

For more information about the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association go to www.loveforallhatredfornone.org

One of the poems was ‘I Believe In’ by Kamraan Khan, who wrote

I believe in what’s right, it’s a simple ideology.

My prayers for the victims of worldwide atrocity.

I believe in equal opportunity and racial equality

Do it globally, let’s forget the geography.

I believe in redistributing wealth to eradicate poverty,

Not using and abusing material novelty.

I believe in not occupying the next man’s property,

And not chasing money all your life like you’re playing monopoly.

I believe in the positive use of modern technology,

But don’t waste your time on it - use it properly.

I believe in reading great books and becoming all scholarly,

Knowledge is power - so gain knowledge, obviously.

I believe in God and I’m interested in theology,

Research enough to know the truth from mythology.

I believe in common sense - some things are meant metaphorically,

So put them into context and analyse things logically.

I believe in worldwide terrorism being condemned categorically,

Hatred in the name of peace is a flawed philosophy.

I believe in myself to stay away from the hypocrisy,

Trying not to get caught in all the red tape bureaucracy.