LONDON // British mosques were opening their doors to the general public on Sunday, in an unprecedented move to strengthen interfaith relations following last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
Some 20 mosques were participating in #VisitMyMosque day, an initiative by the Muslim Council of Britain umbrella group to “reach out to fellow Britons following tensions around terrorism” and help them “gain an insight into the day-to-day goings on of a busy Muslim centre of worship”.
Visitors will be served tea and cakes by members of the mosque community who will answer questions about Islam, the MCB said in a statement.
The Finsbury Park Mosque in north London was among those taking part. The mosque gained global notoreity when Abu Hamza – jailed in the United States last month for the deadly kidnapping of Western tourists in Yemen plus terrorism offences – was iman.
It has since undergone a change in leadership and ethos, however, and now stresses community relations and interfaith dialogue.
But in the wake of the Paris attacks which killed 17 people, the mosque has received a string of threatening letters and emails, its secretary-general Mohammed Kozbar told Sky News recently.
The mosque open day comes after Prime Minister David Cameron’s government sent a letter to Muslim leaders following the killings in France, urging them to “explain and demonstrate how faith can be part of British identity” and suggesting there was “more work to do” in fighting extremism.
This prompted an angry response from the MCB, which questioned whether the government was aligning itself with the far-right by suggesting that Muslims were “inherently apart from British society”.
Ahead of the open day, the group said it was inviting interfaith leaders to “demonstrate unity and solidarity during what has been a tense time for faith communities”.
Around five per cent of people in England and Wales are Muslim, according to a 2011 census, and there are around 1,700 mosques across Britain.
* Agence France-Presse
