After the interview, the local USA Jamaat assured us that the journalist would write up a story and place it on the CNN website within the next couple of days.
However this was not the case and as the days passed I began to think that it was becoming increasingly unlikely that he would write an article about the interview. I personally was becoming increasingly disappointed.
My disappointment was thankfully misplaced as ultimately he did write up a story that was published on the CNN website on 7th July 2012, a few days after Hazur had left the USA and continued his tour in Canada.
The article appeared on the front page of the CNN website with a large picture of Hazur and therefore was immediately accessible and visible to the hundreds of thousands of people who check the CNN website daily.
The article also commented on Hazur’s address to Capitol Hill on 27 June which the journalist had also covered.
In the article Dan Merica had written the headline was:
‘Islamic Sect has appealing message for US politicians but has global enemies’
Merica went onto write in his article:
“You’ve almost certainly never heard of him, but Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad drew some serious star power at a recent Capitol Hill reception in his honour…
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Republican Sen. John Cornyn were among the many lawmakers who showed up to meet Ahmad, a Muslim leader who was in town last week on a rare U.S. visit from London.
At a time when the United States is struggling with its views about Islam – as Islamists gain power in the Middle East and with on‐going concerns about Quran‐citing terrorists – it’s not hard to see Ahmad’s appeal to both parties. As he said in his Capitol Hill speech, he has “love for all, hatred for none.”
It’s a sentiment that Sen. Robert Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, echoed in introducing Ahmad, praising the “leadership you have shown to tolerance and to peace.”
It’s not just Ahmad who espouses his can’t‐we‐all‐get‐along read on Islam. The 61‐year‐old is the spiritual leader of the global Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose friendliness toward the West and whose criticism of other Muslims has earned the sect allies at the highest level of the U.S government, even as it faces mortal enemies in other parts of the world…
Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who leads an international Ahmadi community is the sect’s fifth Khalifa, or leader.
The group claims tens of millions of followers around the world, but outside experts say the number is smaller, in the millions.
For Ahmad and his followers, their relatively small sect is the real face of Islam, which has more than a billion followers around the world.
“It is time that we, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, should give the real and true picture of Islam,” Ahmad said in an interview inside the Silver Spring mosque. “I will always be talking about peace. That peace is not from myself or some new teaching but it is the true, real teaching which I gather and get from the Holy Quran.”
“Nowadays, Islam is being targeted only because of so‐called Muslim groups who claim themselves to be Muslims but are not following the true teachings of Islam,” Ahmad said, speaking of what he calls “fundamentalists Muslims.”
“If it is that Islam that is being portrayed by those orthodox Muslims, then I don’t think there is any chance in spreading Islam.”