Ahmadiyya in Israel

Ahmadiyya is a Muslim movement established in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Its mission is described as rejuvenating Islam through universal reform and peaceful means, and its adherents identify themselves as Muslims.[1]

Ahmadis understand Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to have been the Mahdi and their messiah. The community’s teachings emphasize peace grounded in justice and education, opposition to war and weapons, and a conception of jihad focused on resisting evil within oneself and conveying Quranic teaching with kindness.[1] These descriptions present the community’s beliefs in its own terms; the same reporting notes that Ahmadis can face rejection from other Muslims because of their Ahmadi identity.[1]

In Israel, the community is concentrated in Haifa’s Kababir neighborhood, where its history and institutions have made it a visible part of the city’s religious landscape.[1][7] Ahmadis are also listed among the religious communities resident in the Carmel area.[8] The community’s activities include religious publishing.[2][3] Other sources describe education, assistance to people in need, and participation in interfaith initiatives.[1][9]

The National Library of Israel dates the arrival of Ahmadiyya teachings in Palestine to 1928, when Jalal al-Din Shams came to spread the movement’s message; residents of Kababir accepted it.[2] A JNS account instead places the community’s arrival in Israel in 1927, describing Shams as the first Ahmadi missionary sent from India to the Near East and Middle East.[1] The sources therefore differ slightly on the date, while identifying Shams as central to the movement’s early establishment in the area.

Kababir was an Arab village on a summit of Mount Carmel, established as Haifa began to grow. The National Library says the first Ahmadi mosque there was built in 1931 and named Sayyidna Mahmoud Mosque; it describes Kababir as becoming the movement’s principal proselytizing center in Israel and the wider Middle East, while identifying Qadian in India as Ahmadiyya’s main center.[2] JNS reports that the neighborhood’s Mahmood Mosque opened in 1934 and was renovated in 1979.[1] A separate 2019 report also gives 1934 as the mosque’s construction date and says it remained in use at the time.[7]

Accounts of Kababir’s own beginnings differ. A 2019 report describes the village as founded in 1850, whereas a 2007 report dates its founding to the 1890s and identifies its founders as Arab immigrants from Gaza associated with the Ahmadiyya community.[7][10] The 2007 report also says the community had arrived from Damascus about 70 years earlier, without reconciling that account with its description of the village’s founding.[10]

The community developed an Arabic-language press. The first issue of Al-Bishara al-Islamiyya al-Ahmadiyya is dated March 1, 1932; it began as a quarterly publication, later took the name Al-Bushra, and became monthly.[2] Al-Bushra is cataloged as a Haifa-based religious monthly published in Mandatory Palestine from January 1935 to December 1950: 103 issues comprising 3,246 pages.[3] Its contents included sermons on religious and ethical subjects, selected Quranic and other Islamic passages, and discussions of messianic questions and disputes between Ahmadi and Bahai communities.[3]

Kababir has remained the principal center of Ahmadiyya life in Israel. In 2019, Israeli adherents were described as concentrated in the Haifa neighborhood, where Ahmadis live alongside other residents of the city.[7] A 2018 JNS account described Kababir as a village of about 2,000 residents, with 70 percent Ahmadi, and called its mosque the only Ahmadi mosque in the Middle East; these figures describe the neighborhood and the article’s account, not a separately verified national population total.[1]

Other published estimates are not directly consistent. An undated Encyclopaedia Judaica entry gives “some 600” members in Kababir, while a 2026 Times of Israel article estimates around 2,000 Ahmadis in Israel and a 2017 blog post estimates 3,000.[6][11][12] The sources do not explain the differences, so none of these figures should be treated as a definitive current count. For context, a 2022 academic encyclopedia entry reports that 2019 Israeli statistics counted just over 1.6 million Muslims in Israel, most of whom identified as Sunni, but it does not provide a separate Ahmadi population figure.[5]

The community’s institutions include education and assistance for people in need. An Ahmadiyya committee in Israel helps people regardless of religious background, and Kababir has an elementary school serving local Ahmadi, Jewish, and Christian children. A neighborhood spokesperson described the school as 90 percent Ahmadi, with the remainder Jewish and Christian.[1] Kababir also attracts daily visitors and tourists. In 2019, community leader Amir Mohammed Sharif proposed a heritage museum opposite the mosque to explain the community’s history, values, and activities; municipal officials expressed interest, but the article did not say the museum was built.[7]

In 2007, Kababir had 2,000 residents in 500 housing units and faced limited land for new construction. A municipal plan would allow housing expansions and construction on the scale of hundreds of units, while providing public space, widening roads, adding parking, and improving access. The plan was intended to help the Ahmadiyya community remain in the neighborhood and address younger residents’ desire to stay.[10]

The Ahmadiyya community’s public profile in Haifa has included cooperation across religious lines. During the November 2016 forest fires, the local community, led by Amir Muhammad Sharif Ode, helped with carpentry work at Moriah Congregation’s synagogue and donated items needed to reopen it. Ahmadis and Maronite Christians also offered facilities and private homes as places to sleep and provided food for evacuees regardless of religion.[4] Ahmadiyya members also hosted more than 150 IDF Home Front Command soldiers deployed to the city.[13]

In June 2017, the American Jewish Committee presented a Unity Award to Ode, Rabbi Dov Haiyun, and Father Yousef Yakoub for their response to the fires.[4] Ode’s personal motto is “Love for all, hatred for none.”[4][14] The following year, Ode took part in a panel during a three-day Jewish Diplomatic Corps mission to Israel for the country’s 70th anniversary. In a session titled “Building bridges today for a better tomorrow,” bringing together Haifa religious and civic representatives, he said harmonious coexistence depended on ensuring the meaningful participation of every religious group.[14]

The community also took part in later citywide initiatives. At a University of Haifa conference reported in 2023, Ode was identified as head of the Islamic Ahmadiyya community in Israel, and university and religious leaders honored the community’s contributions to coexistence in northern Israel; the university’s Laboratory for Religious Studies head presented Ode with a plaque of appreciation.[15] In March 2024, Ode and Du’a Ode, identified as head of the community’s women’s council, signed a Haifa interfaith statement calling for respectful relations among the city’s religious communities. The statement emerged from an initiative of the university’s Laboratory for Religious Studies and the Interior Ministry’s Department for Religious Communities and followed six dialogue sessions facilitated by Search for Common Ground. The participants formed a steering committee to expand the network and assist communities facing tensions.[9]

Days after the October 7, 2023 attack, the community opened its doors to hundreds of Israelis from varied backgrounds and emphasized peaceful dialogue among religious and ethnic groups.[12] The account also described outreach in Palestinian areas, including Gaza, and members’ responses to the attack and to initial suspicions from Jewish neighbors.[12]

The community’s early publishing offers a record of religious and political discussion. Al-Bushra carried religious and ethical sermons and selected Quranic and Islamic texts, while also addressing messianic questions and disputes with the Bahai community.[3] After 1948, the journal became a forum for political subjects it had not previously addressed, including communist and social-democratic alternatives.[3]

The National Library’s catalog says the journal’s editorial board opposed the Partition Plan and, until at least 1948, viewed it as “a historic injustice against the resident Arab population.”[3] This is the library’s account of the journal’s editorial position, rather than a general characterization of the Ahmadiyya community’s views. The catalog record—103 issues and 3,246 pages—documents the publication’s duration and scale, but it does not establish that its political positions represented every Ahmadi in Palestine or Israel.[3]

Reporting characterizes the Israeli community as enjoying religious and cultural freedom while also recording concerns voiced by its leader. In a JNS account, Ode described discrimination and said that civil and political rights still had “a long way ahead”; he contrasted the community’s circumstances in Israel with those of Ahmadis elsewhere in the region and in Pakistan, where he said they faced restrictions on religious symbols and practices.[1] These claims are presented as Ode’s characterization and the article’s account, rather than as a comprehensive assessment of the community’s legal or social status.[1]

Population figures likewise remain uncertain. An undated reference gives an estimate of about 600 members in Kababir, while a 2018 account describes the neighborhood as having 2,000 residents with a 70-percent Ahmadi share.[6][1] Separate national estimates give around 2,000 or 3,000 Ahmadis in Israel.[11][12] These figures refer to different scopes and dates, and the sources do not reconcile them.