The Ahmadiyya Muslims, who claim more than 90 million adherents worldwide - a figure disputed by other Muslim organisations - met in Tilford, Surrey, yesterday for the ceremony. The renewal of their initiation vows marked the start of a three-day festival. The sect has centres in 74 towns and cities in this country, as well as a mosque in Putney, southwest London.

Their views about Jesus Christ, the Prophet Muhammad, and their own founder, whom they regard as the Messiah, have placed them at odds with the rest of the Muslim world. They have been barred from membership of Britain's Muslim Parliament and of the Muslim Council. Iqbal Sacranie, of the council, said that the Muslim world saw the group as ''a cult operating outside the fold of Islam. The most serious point is that this cult does not recognise the finality of the Prophet Muhammad as the last and final messenger.''

Ahmadiyya Muslims believe that Ghulam Ahmed, who founded the sect in 1889, was the fulfilment of the messianic expectations of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religions. In other words, they believe that this was the Second Coming of Christ. They believe that Jesus survived the Crucifixion and that His tomb can be found in Kashmir.