Last night, I headed to the biggest mosque in not just the UK but Western Europe, to take a look and find out more about the local community. Can you guess where I was?
You may have seen this particular mosque in the 2016 Channel 5 documentary “Britain’s Biggest Mosque“. Yes, the mosque in question is Bait Ul Futuh, the centre of the local Ahmaddiyah community, based in Morden (London).
Now Muslim readers may gasp: “An Ahmaddiyah mosque?!”. For in the Muslim world, Ahmaddiyahs face economic, social, religious, political and even life threatening persecution in countries such as Pakistan for being deemed as “heretics” by non-Ahmadi groups. In Pakistan for example, citizens are required to sign a document declaring Ahmadi Muslims as “kafirs” (disbelievers) in order to get a passport, whilst violent behaviour by some local citizens is also a reality. Just this week, the journalist Rana Tanveer was run over by a car after being threatened for reporting on the abuse of religious minorities in Pakistan including the Ahmadiyah community (more info on such persecution to follow in a future blog post).
Now, I for one disagree with such statements and behaviours for a multitude of reasons. I reject the statement that Ahmadis are “non-Muslim heretics” and I reject such “takfiri” behaviour where people feel free to openly state who is and isn’t a believer on God’s behalf. I also most certainly in any case reject such treatment of any religious or non-religious minority whether Muslim or not on behalf of citizens and States. As a human rights activist and Muslim who refuses to fall into the Sunni-Shia dichotomy etc. and who rejects labels and sectarianism as well as takfiri behaviour and Islamic extremism, I wanted to find out more about this often demonised Muslim community and meet my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, whilst also getting an insight into what Western Europe’s biggest mosque looks like!
I was warmly welcomed to the mosque by brother Noor for an evening of prayer and breaking our fast. To start with, we took a peek at the evening’s charity appeal in one of the larger rooms of the mosque. In the UK and USA, this community are most often known for their charity work and on the very night a significant sum of money had been raised for their charity work abroad. Moving on to the main entrance of the mosque area itself, there were lots of beautiful flowers to add a lovely fresh, colourful vibe to the site. But what about the inside of the mosque? What’s it like? Well from what I saw, the answer is simply this: pretty much like any other mosque! Take a look for yourself!
So, apart from the security system which is in place to protect the community from attacks (which you’ll also find in place in other religious places of worship), you can see that it’s no different! Same salat (prayer), same washrooms to make wudu (ablution), etc. Yes – perfectly normal! And that’s the point.
The ladies ate in the dining area with the men, separated by a curtain, to break fast and then have dinner after prayer (rice and curried chicken!). We prayed in a separate clean, (fairly) spacious prayer hall (larger than a lot I’ve been to and with an additional floor which I chose not to pray in). I’ve actually been to places in London where the wudu area was so dirty that I couldn’t wash, only to find out that the extremist rhetoric was so traumatising I couldn’t even stay to pray there. And trust me – whilst I’m not judging (God knows what’s in their hearts) – these are exactly the same kind of people who would call our Ahmadi brothers and sisters “kafirs” (and me for going no doubt!)…
So brothers and sisters in Islam, live and let live. Enough with the takfiri labels, the violence, the demonising, the hating. We’re all believers. We all worship Allah (swt) with no partners. We all believe in the Prophet Muhammad and his predecessors (peace be upon them all). We all worship Allah (swt) and Allah alone. And… we’re all human! Can’t we just live in a tolerant, peaceful, united world?
Peace, salam
Acknowledgement:
Thank you to brother Noor and the staff at Bait Ul Futuh for arranging my visit and for warmly welcoming me to the mosque. Ramadan Kareem!
Voice of Salam 