Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Headlines Historic International Conference on Peace in Bogotá, Colombia

On May 17-18, 2023, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community headlined an international peace conference hosted by Universidad de La Salle in Bogotá, Colombia.  The historic event drew approximately 700 people from across Colombia and other countries. Entitled Simposio Colombiano por la Paz (Colombia Symposium on Peace), the inaugural event hosted many prominent dignitaries, including members of the current Colombian Government (health/interior ministries), members of current and former Colombia Congress, including chief organizer Professor Ricaurte Losada Valderrama (previous Senator of Colombia from 1990-1995) and Professor Adriana Patricia Lopez, Vice Director of University of La Salle, over 35 professors from host and surrounding universities from various academic disciplines, and over 50 members of the Colombia National Police Academy.

Imam Julían Arturo Zapata Feliciano, Director of Centro Cultural Islámico in Colombia, one of the conference’s chief organizers, invited representatives from diverse faith communities and countries to participate in the proceedings.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Colombia participated in the conference as one of the headline presentations. Amjad Mahmood Khan, lawyer, law professor and National Secretary of Public Affairs for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, presented two papers entitled, “The Nine Islamic Principles to Achieve Peace” and “Refugees, Human Rights and Peace: An Islamic Perspective,” the former of which featured in an official book of the proceedings entitled, La Paz Total: Un Imposible Transitorio por el Cual Se Debe Trabajar (“Total Peace: A Transitory Impossibility For Which One Must Work”), and the latter of which featured as a stand-alone lecture. The content highlighted the various pronouncements on peace, justice and compassion delivered in past events by the Head of the Worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, His Holiness Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad.

Imam Abdul Sattar Khan, national president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Colombia, featured in several of the conference sessions and, along with Imam Zapata and Amjad Mahmood Khan, separately convened with the Academic Director, Christian James Diaz, and various faculty heads of the Universidad de La Salle to discuss the importance of studying Islam in university studies.  He gifted copies of the Holy Qur’an in Spanish, along with various Jama’at books in Spanish.  

Approximately 1,500 pieces of Jama’at literature were shared with all attendees. Many guests left amazed at the contributions of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community towards global peace.