Bilal Akbar
France Correspondent
On Sunday, 4 November, a small town in France held their Annual Peace Conference. This was the fourth conference organised by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Epernay.
The theme this year was The Basic Principles for Establishing Sustainable Peace.
Various religious and worldly personalities were sent invitations to come and discuss the matter at hand.
The guests were welcomed and the programme started with the recitation of the Holy Quran with French translation. As missionary serving in Epernay, I introduced the Jamaat and talked about the need for this programme and why the Jamaat holds events like this around the world.
The first speaker was Michelle Horviller, President of Epernay Jewish community. After mentioning the recent attack on a synagogue in America, Michelle Horviller emphasised the need to invite the world towards peace and then establishing it in today’s era, a task everyone should focus on.
The second speaker was Abida Sharif, representative of the Mayor. She appreciated the initiative of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Epernay and pledged her support. The third speaker was Madame Marie Thérèse who represented Protestantism. To present her viewpoint she presented a poem “Presiding Over Peace” from Protestant teachings.
To represent Islam was Naseer Ahmad Shahid Sahib, Missionary In-charge Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya France. He talked about how Islam teaches us to establish peace in every aspect of life and gave examples of this from the life of the Holy Prophetsa. By talking about the real teachings of Islam, he nullified the emerging allegations on Islam.
The last speech of the conference was by Ashfaq Rabbani Sahib, Amir Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya France. He thanked all the guests for taking time out to attend the event. Towards the end, he presented some extracts from speeches of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa.
In the end, all the speakers were presented with gifts. Later, all the guests enjoyed refreshments and mingled with local Ahmadis.
A total of 140 people attended this event out of which 96 were guests, Alhamdolillah.
May Allah give us courage to dedicate our lives for the propagation of Islam as is the desire of our Imam, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih Vaa.