Central Jamaat-e Ahl-e Sunnat is a congregation and mosque of the Pakistani community in Oslo, Norway with 6,000 members, making it the largest mosque in the country. ^[1] Within Sunni Islam, the mosque is affiliated with Sufism ^[1] and the Barelvi movement. ^[2]

History

The congregation was founded in 1976 after a group of Sufi-oriented first-generation Pakistani immigrants split from the Islamic Cultural Centre. ^[1] The mosque has later seen many splits and internal conflicts. In 1984 a faction split to form a World Islamic Mission congregation, and in 1989 the founder Ahmad Mustaq Chisti was expelled, which resulted in street fights outside the mosque. ^[1] Internal family-based power struggles about the leadership in the congregation led to violent fights in the mosque in 2006. ^[3]

In 2006 a new mosque building, Jamea Masjid was opened in Motzfeldts gate 10, with 6,200 square metres (67,000 sq ft) and room for 2,500 people. The mosque cost  kr 93 million (US$14.5 million) to construct, financed through loans and wealthy Pakistanis. ^{[1] [4] [5]}

The mosque's imam Nehmat Ali Shah was in 2014 assaulted and stabbed outside his home. Two men (including the alleged planner of the attack, a man of Pakistani background), were later arrested for the attack charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm. A woman was also charged with attempting to cover up the crime. ^[6] The following year, mosque chairman Ghulam Sarwar was assaulted outside his home. ^[6]

The mosque was one of five mosques that founded the Islamic Council Norway, an umbrella group of Muslims in Norway, in 1993. ^[1]

Controversy

The mosque's imam Nehmat Ali Shah, along with mosque chairman Ghulam Sarwar sparked controversy in 2013 after saying in an interview with Dagsavisen that the media was " run by Jews" who portrayed Islam in a negative way. In the same interview, Sarwar rhetorically asked "why the Germans killed them [the Jews]", suggesting that the Holocaust could be explained as a consequence of Jews being "unruly people in the world". ^{[1] [7]}

In 2016, Shah took part in a demonstration outside the Pakistani embassy in Oslo, and later attended a memorial rally in Pakistan, in honour of Mumtaz Qadri, the Islamic extremist convicted for the murder of the Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had opposed Pakistan's blasphemy law. ^{[1] [8] [9]} His high-profile participation at both events (at which he gave speeches) caused a major controversy. ^[10] Shah has stated that he otherwise supports Sharia-sanctioned capital punishment. ^[11] In a press conference by the congregation after his return to Norway it was announced that Shah would continue in his position (since 1992) as the mosque's head imam. ^[12]

The mosque receives around  kr 3 million annually in public funds, including funding for "dialogue work" that has been publicly supported and praised by several Norwegian government ministers and royalty. ^[9] In 2007, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre praised Shah for "defending freedom of religion" after the Oslo Synagogue attack. ^[9]

2024 shooting threat

On April 6, A white supremacist threatened and supposedly planned an attack on the mosque using an assault rifle, using the social network app, Discord. A photo was posted with a rifle, a combat vest and a piece of paper which said “THIS IS MY GUN, CENTRAL JAM-E MOSQUE, TMD NORWAY”, along with a map with routes to three mosques, with Central Jamaat being number “1”. The photo garnered attention and police were notified, leading them to increase security around the mosque. ^{[13] [14]}

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Central Jamaat-e Ahl-e Sunnat Mosque.