Nat'l Conference in Britain Kick Starts Consultation for Better Mosques
Organized by the Muslim Council of Britain, the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella body, the conference kick-starts a community consultation process aimed at developing an institutionalized approach to excellence amongst Britain’s mosques.
The ‘Our Mosques, Our Future’ conference saw over 450 mosque leaders and activists come together to debate the challenges and opportunities facing mosques in Britain today under the theme #morethanaprayerspace.
Speakers including Imam Abid Salik of York Mosque, Maryam Hassam of Hyderi Islamic Centre and Ishtiaq Ahmed of Bradford Council for Mosques, shared their inspiring stories of how their local mosques have excelled in fields such as outreach work, supplementary school provision and social care delivery.
The conference also sees the launch of ‘Better Mosques: a Community Consultation’, a nation-wide exercise to determine how mosques can best share good practice and collectively strive to raise the quality of service they offer to congregants and the community around them.
Speaking at the ‘Our Mosques Our Future’ conference, Harun Khan, MCB Secretary General, said “Many mosques in Britain are already doing amazing work and our objective must be to share that good practice and inspire even more mosques towards excellence. Today’s consultation launch invites the views of mosques and local communities on how best we can achieve this and the MCB is committed to working with all our stakeholders and partners to make sure the consultation results are translated into real tangible action afterwards.”
There are over 1,750 mosques in the UK serving Britain’s three million Muslims. While all serve the basic and fundamental provision of offering a space to pray in congregation, many of the UK’s mosques also act as hubs for the local community around them and the conference sessions included many of these role model examples.
Difficult questions on the challenges faced by mosques in Britain were also tackled at the conference including Islamophobia, governance good practice and access for women, as well as other workshops on creating safe spaces for young people, disability inclusion and dealing with the media.
Source: MCB
