Souvenir on 50th Jalsa Salana USA — Page 67
AIIMADIYYAT ON lNT~:RN. ET Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has reached practically every comer of the earth. Initially the missionari es and devotees of the Promised Messiah (AS) physically carried the message of Ahmadiyyat to all these countries. Today Allah has provided n ew technologies to spread the mes- sage of Ahmadiyyat, the true Islam. Muslim Television Ahmadiyya (MTA) was estab li sh ed as a satellite television station in 1994. Jamaal Ahmadiyya USA started its Internet Services in April 1995. In 1995, Brs. Athar Malik, Mureed Nazir and Latif Nazir started the Int ernet Services with one station at the Baitur Rahman Mosque in Silver Spring, Maryland. Initially the services were limit- ed to the World Wide Web. Due to extreme popularity among young and enthusiastic Jamaal members, and its potential to reach an entirely different and influential audience, these services were expanded to include a wide variety in a short period of l year, upgrading from a slow 28. 8 Kbps connection to a very fast 1. 54 Mbps connection. The site was named Al-Islam. USA Jamaal also introduced Audio Services using Real Audio. Friday Sermon by Had/mil Khalifatul Masih IV (ABA) of May 10th, J 996 was broadcasted live from Eng land via MTA Satellite Services over Internet for the first time. This service, in particular, was very instrumental in rea ching far areas such as Japan, Australia, Fiji, New Zea land and South American countries, where MTA Satellite services could not be reached. In February 1997, MTA Video over Internet was started. Today CyberMTA reaches about 1500 listeners weekly from around the globe. CybcrMTA not only broadcasts MTA live 24 hours a day but has archived all the Friday Sermons since May 10th, 1996. It has al so provided live coverage of Annual Conventions in England, German y, Canada, USA, and Qadian since May 10th, 1996. Al -Islam site provides a comprehensive library for the study of Islam. It has is a translation of the entire Holy Quran, by Maul vi Sher Ali, with a search engine to l ocate verses of the Holy Qur' an on any subject. It also includes a wide variety of Ahmadiyya literature on different topics. Al-Islam site is also the home of AMNI, Ahmadiyya Muslim Network International. This is an organi?ation for Ahmadi Muslims worldwide who arc connected together by electronic mail. Currently there are close to 200 members of this organization around the globe. Al-Islam site is very active in responding to the objections commonly raised against Ahmadiyyat on the Internet. The work ic; very closely coordinated with the Ahmadiyya site in Canada and other Ahmadiyya web pages.