Bright Lights of the Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 22
22 JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE (Nusrat Jahan Bashir) The Promised Messiah (peace be on him) lived very far away in Qadian, India, but Allah showed a great sign of his truth to people here in America also? There was a man named Alexander Dowie who liv- ed in America during the lifetime of the Promised Messiah. Dowie said that he had the power to heal people and that he was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He founded a city in Illinois called Zion and he said that Jesus would come to his town of Zion. Many people believed him and followed him. ·~ Soon, he began to say bad things about Islam. He said that if the Muslims did not become Christians they would meet with dest ru ction. When the Promised Messiah heard this he wrote to Dowie telling him about the beauties of Islam and challenging him to a prayer-duel. For about a year (from 1902 to 1903) many newspapers in Europe and America printed information about this chal- lenge. About two to three million people came to know about this challenge. But Dowie ignored the challenge of the Promised Messiah and he continued to pray for the destruction of Islam. He even went so far as to write in his paper, 'I pray to God that Islam should soon disappear from the world. 0, God, accept this prayer of mine. 0 God, destroy Islam. ' He would not stop making these awful attacks on Islam. The Promised Messiah wanted people to find out the truth about Dowie. He