The threat of nuclear war was discussed among a band of political heavyweights who visited Morden on Saturday.

No less than eight MPs – two of them cabinet ministers - London’s mayor and Merton’s council leader attended the annual peace discussion, hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association (AMA) at the Baitul Futuh mosque in London Road, Morden, on March 24.

The spiritual leader of the muslim sect, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, warned of nuclear war breaking out and citing the devastating consequences on Japan after the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1944.

He said: “If a nuclear war breaks out, we will find that people will instantly die and freeze like statues, and their skin will simply melt away.

“The weapons available today are so destructive that they could lead to generation after generation of children being born with severe genetic or physical defects.

“Drinking water, food and vegetation will be all contaminated by radiation.

"We can only imagine what type of diseases such contamination will lead to.”

Many Ahmadi muslims have faced murder and imprisonment in Pakistan, where their Islamic beliefs are effectively outlawed.

In 2010, the Wimbledon Guardian exposed how intolerance towards Ahmadis by other muslims had spread to south London, with worshippers being intimidated with hate leaflets and threats of violence.

Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden and Chair of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, said that though progress had been made, there was still much to achieve in terms of making sure all people around the world were granted religious freedom.

Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond MP read out a message from the Government’s Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles MP, who praised the AMA for promoting tolerance throughout Britain’s communities.

Also among the guests was London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, who said the AMA’s work represented “so much that is good and remarkable about the genius of this city.”

The leader of Merton Council, Stephen Alambritis, also urged for peace and cohesion and said: “We must at all times remember the good in people in past as well as in the present and in to the future.”

Other MPs who attended included transport secretary Justine Greening (also MP for Putney), energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey (also MP for Kingston and Surbiton), as well as Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington), Jane Ellison (Battersea), and Andrew Stunnell (Hazel Grove).

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