Ismail Balogun

Dr. Ismail A. B. Balogun

In a series of articles published in Nigeria during 1974, Dr. Ismail A. B. Balogun, a high level Ahmadi leader, refuted the tenets of Ahmadiyyah and publicly denounced the Movement he had been born and raised in. A Professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies at the University of Ibadan, Algeria, Dr. Balogun had dedicated his life to the cause of Ahmadiyyah and had raised through the ranks to become a top spokesman and ambassador for the Movement. Throughout the years, his well articulate and emotional speeches had motivated many young Ahmadis. Similarly, his public departure and the commotion and debates that pursued caused many educated individuals to realize the truth and abandon Ahmadiyyah.

Subsequently, Dr. Balogun documented the reasons for his withdrawal from the Movement and included some of the ensuing debates in a book entitled "Islam versus Ahmadiyyah in Nigeria " . In this book, Dr. Balogun disclosed how he, as many other highly educated individuals, had blindly accepted Ahmadiyyah out of loyalty to his parents, misinformation disseminated by the Ahmadi leadership, divisive methods of the Indo-Pakistani Ahmadi missionaries, and other subjective reasons having more to do with propaganda and cultural habits than the truthfulness of any movement.

Dr. Balogun recounts his upbringing and his blind faith in the Indo-Pakistani Ahmadi missionaries in the following passage:

"In my Childhood, I was brought up to revere the Indo-Pakistani Ahmadiyyah missionaries who guided and controlled our religious activities. When the mission came to our elders and, through the elders to us, we believed all that they told us in toto, because of the implicit confidence we had in them.

Their preaching appeared plausible to us and we accepted their arguments in good faith. They made references to Islamic books in order to substantiate their claims and we accepted the references without cross-checking them because of our confidence in them.

Their method was to alienate us against the orthodox Muslims in whom they found faults in the way they practiced Islam. The missionaries claimed to present "the true Islam" to us in the name of Ahmadiyyah.

They often impressed on us that the stiff opposition, which Ahmadis suffered in India before the partition and subsequently in Pakistan , was a conclusive proof of the truth of Ahmadiyyah. After all, no prophet is readily accepted in his own town or country. This also appeared plausible to us, hence we followed them with unalloyed confidence." (Sunday Sketch, Nigeria, Sept. 29, 1974; Islam versus Ahmadiyyah in Nigeria, p. 85-86)

Over a quarter of century ago, Dr. Balogun had accurately identified the strategy employed by high level Ahmadi missionaries to misguide the uninformed. Not only the missionaries do not publicize a complete picture of their doctrine and history, but also they distort the teachings of Islam and attempt to exasperate and capitalize upon sectarian division among few ignorant Muslims.

Dr. Balogun testified:

"Even though Ahmadiyya has been in this country for close to sixty years, I make the bold to say that, up till now, the vast majority of the adherents of the organization, within both the Movement and the Mission , are still in the dark about the details of its teaching, as well as its purpose. For example, it was only very recently, when stiff opposition to Ahmadiyyah started to rear its head in this country, that certain high-ranking Ahmadis knew for the first time that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be a Prophet." (Sunday Times, Nigeria, Jan. 20, 1974; ibid., p. 3)

“The fact that Ahmadis hid their true doctrine from the membership at large is] evident in the fact that when one of the young educated Nigerian Muslims, who originally invited the Movement here, went to Britain for further studies and thereby came in contact with Indian Ahmadis, who resided then in Britain, he studied them at first hand and returned home only to withdraw his membership of the Movement. This was the late al-Haj L. B. Agusto of blessed memory." (Sunday Times, Nigeria, Jan. 20, 1974; Ibid., p. 2)

Indeed, since its very inception, the Ahmadi leadership has relied upon the well-proven methods of the Christian Missionaries to alienate the uninformed individuals from knowledgeable and sincere Muslims and selfishly increase their membership. They know only too well that the descendants of individuals somehow tricked into joining their organization are generally less likely to renounce their membership, even after they discover the truth.

Dr. Balogun records that, when in 1974, the Pakistani Government and the Muslim World League both declared the Ahmadiyyah to be a non-Muslim group, he set out in earnest to defend the Movement he was born into and prove its truthfulness. However, his scholarly and thorough research into the teachings of Ahmadi leadership untangled a disturbing web of deceit and left him with no alternative but to denounce the Mission . This finding is even more significant since Dr. Balogun, even though a high level Ahmadi and a Professor of Islamic Studies, had himself been kept in the dark for over forty years.