The 22nd Norway Jalsa Salana 2004 was held
on 18th and
19th September 2004 at Rommen School in Oslo. Almost 800
people attended this blessed event. Maulana Munir ud-Din Shams Sahib,
Additional Wakeel
ut-Tasneef, represented Markaz. Mir Abdul Basit sahib, Naib
Nazir Islah o Irshad was invited as a special guest.
Besides faith inspiring
addresses in Urdu and Norwegian, representatives of several of the
major political parties in Norway
attended the Jalsa.
News of this year was a historical video memorial of the past Norway
Jalsas' shown to the participants during final session. Throughout
the Jalsa days an exhibition on ‘jihad’, gave
especially the non-Ahmadi guests a new understanding of this term.
The
Norway Jamaat was founded in 1957 when Syed Kamal Yusuf Sahib was
Missionary for Scandinavia. Amongst those who took part in the
founding with Imam Sahib was the young Norwegian Ahmadi Muslim Noor
Ahmad Truls Bølstad Sahib.
During the first 15 years the Jamaat barely consisted
of Norwegians who converted to Islam. When the Jamaat grew larger Khalifat-ul-Masih
III (ra) opened the Noor Mosque (Oslo) in 1980. The former villa became
the first mosque in Norway. Two years later the first Majlis Shura
outside the Indian subcontinent, was held in the Noor Mosque. In
1985 Jamaat launched the first
Muslim radio station in Norway, reaching several hundred thousand people.
And in 1991 the Jamaat also launched a local TV station named ‘TV
Islam Ahmadiyya’.
Today (2004) the Jamaat counts 1200 members,
most of whom are living in the capital Oslo. The National Ameer
is Zartasht Munir Ahmad Khan
Sahib, and the Missionary Chaudhry Shahid Mahmood Kahloon Sahib.
