Another thing (and this really hurts cause it was personal) is that the bohras don’t marry outside, there are an increasing number of outside the community marriages but they still face tremendous opposition from the family and most all the community (four people i know married outside so i know what they have to go through).
Now why do i know so many people like that and why’d i try to go into the bohra places? Well it’s cause i love this girl and really want to marry her but la de dah she’s a bohri and her daddy is like hitler reborn. I have nothing against the bohri people, I’m completely secular and open minded and so it really hurts when i’m faced with stuff like this.
~:[

oh and I’m pretty ok in every aspect, my being a sunni the only hitch (preemptive strike against any “maybe it’s cause you’re ugly!” comment)

But Wikipedia is not your best source for information, dear indi. Convenient and quick, but not comprehensive. The truth is a lot simpler and a whole lot more complex.

Anyway, if you must know, Dawoodi Bohras that subject themselves to the authority of our spiritual leader have no doubt in their minds that they practice the true religion of God, which we believe is Islam, carefully handed down from the last Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to his true inheritors.

We are thankful to be a part of this community, as we have the best of both worlds – in more ways than can be easily understood by anyone.

Unfortunately, us humans do not easily accept the ways of divinity. For this reason there have always been enemies of Islam. And the worst enemies are those that use the name of Islam itself to wreak havoc and shroud the beauty of Islam.

It is no wonder that those with malice in their heart are naturally repelled by spirituality and piety, while those that God has chosen to have love in their hearts are attracted to it.

Dear indi, a Bohra is a far cry from what you get from a Wiki - or a mountain in Afghanistan.

Secondly it is not true that other muslims our not allowed into our masjids. Anyone can pray there and at Friday prays or in the month of Ramadan we have muslims from other communities in our Masjid in London UK. Also we have visiters such as politians visit us well. We are well intergrated and part of any community we live in anywhere in the world. It is also a lie that the buildings have to be washed if another muslim enters and this rumour was proberly made up by dissidents who are trying to harm the community from within or the Wahhabis who are hate all muslims who are not extremists like themselves.

Lastly we believe in the Prophet Mohammed like everyone else in fact we hold him in higher respect than some other muslims like sulafids and we are not allowed to be engaged at birth as a person isnt born into the faith they must choose at puberty to join or leave and they must choose who they marry. When a Bohra gets married they are asked multiple time if they want to get married as forced marriages are not allowed and this rule is strictly enforced.

All the holy sites in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and Iraq are mantained by us and we are currently restoring the holy sites in Iraq. Kerbala, Najaf and Kufa. We own schools and hospitals around the world and run the Saifee ambulance service in Mumbai as well having built the Saifee hospital in India. The tallest building in that area of asia.

The 51st Dai helped pay for the rebuilng of the Kaba in Mecca and made the curtains used inside his name Syedna Taher Saifuddin is also engraved in the Al Aqsa masjid in jerusalam as he had paid for its renovation. He was close friends with Mathama Ghandi along with the present 52nd Dai al Mutlaq and the road used in the salt march against the British empire has been named after him as Ghandi stayed in his house afterwards.

The 52nd Dai Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin is a ambassador of peace and goodwill for the United Nations and been given awards from around the world and the British Parliment have said that the celebration of his birthday will be a annual event in the houses of parliament. The mother of democracy.

There is more I could say but I would like to remind people that the internet is a place where stories and rumours and lies are spread and when bad things are said about people we should ask is this realistic and why it is the person is saying it. The bohra community is no different to any community and we have storys made up about us just like anyone else. People should ask themselves how they would feel if bad thing were being said about them and should look at how we peacefully and patiently live with these lies. We are the only community in the world to have institutionally provided interest free loans and succesfully removed absolute poverty from our community with it. We have 100% litracy rates and in the words of the prime minister Tony Blair “Young muslims are tired of how a small number of vocal extremists hide the voice of true muslims and constantly get media coverage”. This is how we feel about the minority from within our own community who give a bad name by constanly crying wolf and those from sunni muslims who keep making up stories about how we dont believe in Islamic concepts such as we believe in reincarnation or we dont pray correctly. If this was true than why our we allowed to go on the hajj when other groups like the nizari khojas have been banned.They also say things about corruption in community finances but they do not realise that we do not recieve money from the saudi arabian goverment like other muslims and we have expensives costs such as the upkeep of pilgrim houses or food for visitors to our masjids that is why money is collected centrally by one source. This is the easiest method of distribution and everyone is happy with it. These are lies knowingly created by people who are tageting a peaceful community.

The comment about us not accepting Prophet Muhammad as a Prohet is absolutely wrong. Infact, during the Ashara Mubaraka observed in Colombo a major part of the prayers were devoted to the Prohepts sayings.

Many Bohras in Colombo, and indeed elsewhere, are rich and do pay a large sum as tax to the community but is there anything wrong.

The Bohras are very secular. The point about non-bohras cannot worship in our mosques is to some extent true, but it is vice versa. The major reason being our prayers are quite different from the other Muslim sects. But in this era of peaceful co-existence this should not be an issue. Infact in a previous Ashara Mubarak, in Mumbai, we had the chief-minister of Mumbai and other ministers visiting the mosque during prayers to greet His Holiness, and the mosque was certainly not washed after their departure as someone claims.

However, the larger point about ‘difference’ in a pluralist context I make remains valid, and if the recent rows (serious) about veil wearing by Muslim women in France and UK, and (less serious) the UK Channel 4 Celebrity Big Brother controversy shows, these are problems facing any society, not just ours.

This seems also the point that JustMal makes, when he says I am talking about a “non-existent, secular, pluralist utopia.” That does not however mean that we should lose sight of ideals, nor that the only questions we ask have to be those based on ‘realism’ or ‘reality’ however unpleasant or unacceptable that may be.

Finally, I am entirely with you on the corrosive effect of political correctness - it tends to discourage enquiry and understanding. You would, I hope, in turn concede that the questions I ask are equally valid ones in such a enquiry.

The enduring challenge of multi-culturalism isn’t being politically correct all the time, it’s attempting to learn about and understand one another.