Our own London caliphate is doing nothing but good

Me in the Evening Standard today:

An e-mail I received recently began: “30,000 Muslims in London pledge allegiance to the caliphate”. Well, it certainly got my attention, but the caliph in question was not that rather humourless chap in Syria but Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the softly spoken leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community.

You may have seen their slogan — “Love for all, hatred for none” — or noticed their young men selling poppies outside Tube stations, an act of charity they carry out as a symbol of loyalty to Britain, but which also reflects older ties to our armed forces in India.

Morden in south London is the worldwide headquarters of the Ahmadi caliphate,  an unlikely successor to Baghdad, Damascus and Constantinople in the annals of Islam, and home to Europe’s largest mosque, the Baitul Futuh, which last week almost burned down.