The UK's largest Muslim convention, Jalsa Salana (an annual gathering of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, now in its 60th year), opened this weekend in Hampshire with significantly enhanced security, including several hundred additional staff and closer coordination with police and emergency services. Around 50,000 attendees from over 100 countries are expected at the 208-acre temporary site, despite a backdrop of rising anti-Muslim hate crime and a separate Islamic event last month that was shut down early after arrests over a suspected far-right murder plot. Rafiq Hayat, head of the UK's Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said cancellation was never considered, and argued that greater visibility — not withdrawal — is the community's response to hostility, citing decades of experience building interfaith relationships with neighbours, local authorities, and police.