“I am writing to you in regard to the programme Raat Gaye broadcast on 1^st September 2009 on the PTV Global channel for UK.

It contained an item about the Woking Mosque, in which there were several mis-statements about the history of the Mosque. I am pointing these out to you in my capacity as the creator and editor of the website www.wokingmuslim.org, which is dedicated to the history of this Mosque. In fact, some photographs shown in the programme were taken from my website.

I list below the wrong statements in order in which they occurred in the programme.

1. It was stated that the Woking Mosque has the distinction that the first English translation of the Quran by a Muslim was “done there”. Later the programme stated that it was the translation by Marmaduke Pickthall and showed its cover page.

In fact, the only English translation of the Quran to be published from the Woking Mosque was that by Maulana Muhammad Ali, Head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, and it was published in 1917. Mr Pickthall’s translation appeared many years later in 1930.

2. It was stated that in 1912 Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din purchased the Woking Mosque from the son of Dr Leitner (who had built the Mosque).

This is an absolutely incorrect statement. In fact, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din got the Mosque handed over to a Trust whose members were Syed Ameer Ali and Sir Abbas Ali Baig, two famous Muslims living in England at the time. Perhaps your programme makers did not want it to be known that other Muslim leaders collaborated with Ahmadis in the running of this Mosque.

3. It was then wrongly stated that from 1912 to 1962 the Mosque: (a) remained in the control of “Qadianis”, and (b) that “Qadianis” preached their own ideology from there.

These are absolutely untrue statements.

(a) The Woking Mosque Trust never had any Ahmadis on it. Its members were leading persons of the general Muslim community. Even the ambassador of Saudi Arabia, Shaikh Hafiz Wahba, was on this Trust at one time. Since 1953, when the Mission was still run by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, the chairman of the Mosque Trust was always, ex-officio, the High Commissioner of Pakistan, with other officials from the High Commission also as members of the Trust. This is still the case today.

(b) The Woking Muslim Mission did not preach any Ahmadiyya ideology. It preached the basic Islam only, as recognised by all Muslims. What was preached can be read even today in the Mission’s magazine The Islamic Review from 1913 onwards.

Other notable Muslims, with no connection to the Ahmadiyya Movement, frequently gave khutbahs [sermons] at the Woking Mosque. Even the ambassador of Saudi Arabia, Shaikh Hafiz Wahba, mentioned above, delivered khutbas here in the 1930s and 1940s. A full list of such prominent Muslims would make this letter very lengthy indeed.

4. The programme then stated that the last “Qadiani” imam, Bashir Ahmad Misri, appointed in 1964, discovered “true Islam” after his appointment by touring the whole Muslim world, and he then rebelled against “Qadiani” ideology.

However, there is a lengthy explanation by Mr Misri himself, published on several anti-Ahmadiyya websites, in which he states that at the time of his appointment he was a Sunni Muslim and had already written articles against the Ahmadiyya Movement. The “world tour” mentioned in your programme was, Mr Misri writes, undertaken by him after he had left his position as imam. So, the story that after becoming imam at Woking he “discovered true Islam” is belied by Mr Misri’s own well-publicised account.

The programme went on to say that “hundreds of non-Muslims” accepted Islam at this Mosque. But most of those conversions took place in the period when, according to your programme, the “Qadianis” were in control of the Mosque!

The programme also stated that many Muslim heads of state visited the Woking Mosque. In this connection it displayed three photographs of such visits (taken from my website). In all three photographs, the Ahmadi imam of the Mosque is welcoming the head of state! If this was a “Qadiani” Mosque, why were Muslim heads of state visiting it and praying behind the imams of the Mosque?

I hope you will provide me with an opportunity to appear on your channel and present the true history of the work of the Woking Muslim Mission during the fifty-year period that the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement managed it.”Note: I did receive a prompt reply by e-mail to my letter above, asking me for my phone number. I provided it but there was no further response.