BONN. A festival had originally been planned in Bonn to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, but due to the pandemic it could not take place. As an alternative way of marking United Nations Day, Bonn's Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan and Oliver Adams, Head of the UN Volunteers Service, opened an exhibition on the Rhine promenade below the Alte Zoll. The exhibition panels provide information about the history of the UN, its concerns and in particular about the resident secretariats. The exhibition is running until Thursday, 12^th November. In addition, on Saturday night the Old Town Hall was illuminated in blue, the colour of the UN. Next year another UN anniversary is coming up: To commemorate 25 years of the UN City of Bonn, a series of events will be held on the resident secretariats.

(Original text: kph)

BONN. Some municipal facilities will be open on the upcoming public holiday of All Saints' Day, on Sunday 1^st November. The Kunstmuseum (Art Museum), the Ernst Moritz Arndt House and the Haus der Natur (House of Nature) will all be opening their doors to visitors. During its usual opening hours from 11am to 6pm, the Kunstmuseum will be showing an exhibition on the Bonn Art Prize 2019 and a new presentation of the in-house collection entitled "Nur nichts anbrennen lassen" (Just don't let anything burn).

The Stadtmuseum (City Museum) is showing an exhibition on "Bonn's Golden Age" in the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Haus and is open from 11.30am to 5pm. The exhibition focuses on the social and cultural times of Beethoven and was created in cooperation with the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien (the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna).

At the Haus der Natur museum in the Waldau forest, in addition to the permanent exhibition "Großwaldstadt", the photo exhibition “Bäume im XXL-Format!” (XXL size trees!) can also be visited from 10am to 5pm. Bonn’s indoor swimming pools are open on Sundays from 9am to 1pm and from 2pm to 6pm.

(Original text: kph)

BONN-MEHLEM. At around 4.20pm on Saturday the fire services were called to an accident on the river Rhine, where a rowing boat carrying five people is said to have capsized. The people from the boat managed to land themselves near the Bad Godesberg district of Mehlem with the help of two other rowers. Rescue teams treated them on the banks of the Rhine. Four people were said to be injured.

The reasons for the partial capsize are unclear, according to the control centre of the water protection police in Duisburg, which is also responsible for the accident site near Mehlem. The rowing boat is said to have collided with a second boat or ship. "We received this information not only from the shipping navigation, but also from a person who was in the capsized rowing boat," the officer at the control centre explained: "However, we do not know whether there was actually a collision. So far there are no traces. The investigations are still ongoing.”

The Bonn fire brigade, the Bad Honnef-Rhöndorf fire-fighting unit and the Königswinter Altstadt and Niederdollendorf fire-fighting units were all in attendance. An emergency doctor and three ambulances were also on site.

(Original text: Axel Vogel und Jana Henseler)

BONN. The religious community of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat is running its third awareness campaign under the motto “Muslims against racism”. At a press conference at the Haus Müllestumpe on Thursday, the community Imam Mahmood Ahmed Malhi explained the background to the campaign and offered insights into the Islamic denomination, which is little known in Germany and has been represented by followers in Germany for about a hundred years. Similar initiatives had already been launched in Bonn in the two previous years.

"The world religions are still waiting for their saviour, a reformer in the end times. They all have this in common. For us he has already appeared," explained Mahmood Ahmed Malhi. The young theologian and Imam of the Ahmadiyya community thus described the essential difference between his faith community and other Islamic denominations. Members believe that Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, born in 1835 in Northern India, is their "Promised Messiah", whose self-imposed task as the successor of Mohammed was to reform Islam and lead Muslims through the coming end times as the "Mahdi" (guided ones). Since then, the members have been engaged in ongoing missionary work in many parts of the world, while remaining emphatically philanthropic and liberal. In Hamburg and Hesse the Fellowship already has the status of a public corporation and is thus largely on a par with the Christian churches. The Ahmadiyya gives Islamic religious instruction at public schools in Hesse. In NRW, an application is currently still being reviewed.

According to the AMJ, the religious community in Germany has "more than 35,000 organised members with almost 50 mosques", while worldwide there are said to be several tens of millions in more than 200 countries. The community is organised hierarchically and is led from London by Caliph Hadrath Ahmad, the fifth elected successor to the founder Ghulam Ahmad.

In several Islamic countries, such as Pakistan or Indonesia, followers are subject to state and social repression because their views differ from mainstream Islam. "According to the Pakistani constitution, our members are forbidden to call themselves Muslims there. The UN has declared a right of asylum for them," said Imam Mahmood Mahli, who is responsible for the community based in the Rhineland. Mahli repeatedly emphasised how keen Ahmadiyya Muslims are to integrate into Germany. "We are loyal to the country we live in." Mahli, who was born in Mannheim, is one of the graduates of the community’s first training cohort for German Imams. "We refrain from so-called import imams. Our sermons are also in German. Transparency and openness are important to us," says Mahli. "Through our actions we want to enter into conversation with the people.”

(Original text: Jakub Drogowski)

BONN. Astronomy on Tap Bonn holds regular monthly astronomy talks at the Fiddlers pub in Bonn-Endenich. This month the group is going virtual due to #covid-19 restrictions on public life. Join Astronomy on Tap Bonn on Tuesday 27^th October at 7pm on YouTube live for another virtual event with 1) Kathrin Grunthal on "Neutron stars as Whistleblowers", 2) Christoph Schürman on "Physics Nobel prize 2020". The event will include a live quiz and one lucky winner will receive a super astro prize via mail. For more information about the group, see Facebook & YouTube (Astronomy on Tap Bonn) or Instagram & Twitter (@aotbonn), or send an email to AoTBonn@gmail.com.

(Translations: Caroline Kusch)