Community activities
Our centre is not just a Mosque, it is a community centre which serve Muslims and non-Muslims alike. A wide variety of community activities are organised and take place at the Mosque.
Feeding the Homeless: This project started in partnership with organisations like Caris, The Passage, St. Johns Church, Caritas, and others where we open the Mosque’s doors every week to the homeless people in the area regardless of their faith, background or gender providing them with hot meals, also we offer them advice and the chance to socialise with others.
Visible Quality Reward: Finsbury Park Mosque has been awarded in October 2014 the "Visible Quality Mark" by Community Matters. The Visible Standards are endorsed by the Charity Commission. Finsbury Park Mosque was the first mosque and the third faith organisation in the country to receive such award.
Visit My Mosque days: This is an annual event which takes place every year, where members of the wider community, schools and colleges were invited to visit the Mosque and look to its exhibitions and watch the mosque presentation about its activities and have a tour around.
Eid with Refugees: We invite our local refugees to celebrate Eid with us every year so they can socialise and know the community and what services we provide for them. Also we distribute hundreds of coats to refugees in partnership with the charity Care for Calais during winter time.
Street Iftar: Finsbury Park Mosque is the first mosque in the country which start this initiative during the month of Ramadan 2017 and after the terrorist attack on the worshippers who left the Mosque after the night prayer. Since then, we have been organising the Street iftar every Ramadan where we invite the Muslim community and the wider community to celebrate and get together and share food outside the Mosque.
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
Interfaith dialogue: Our Mosque is an active member of the Islington Faith Forum (IFF). The Mosque hosted many committee meetings for the last few years and hosted the course of Mental Health & Poverty which was organised by IFF. We use the platform to promote interfaith dialogue and social cohesion.
Hate crime events: The Mosque is one of the leading organisations in the borough to tackle hate crimes. This year we organised few events to address this issue especially during the Islamophobia awareness month in November where a diverse audience from all faiths and communities came together to show unity against hate crime and Islamophobia.
Youth and Women Activities: A youth club for youths has been established for more than 10 years now at our centre on a weekly basis, where young people can have a cohesive and healthy atmosphere and to keep them away from gangs, drugs, crimes, and extremism. Also, we have an active women section, they meet regularly to arrange for various activities, educational and social programs including joint activities with local Churches.
Environment: As environment becomes one of the main issues which we all need to address, we arranged in partnership with Islington Council several trips to the Ecology Centre for our students and adults to educate them about the importance of the environment and how we can be part of looking after our planet.
Hall and rooms: Our hall and meeting rooms are available for use by local groups and organisations. This year alone the facilities have been used by groups at the local karate club, the local community group and youth club. Local charities are encouraged to make use of the conference hall, and we normally host surgeries with both local Councillors and the MP for Islington. When the hall is not required for community use, it is then available for hire for family events (courses, training, conferences, weddings, condolences).
Health seminars and consultations: A Muslim GP provides a free health consultation at the Mosque occasionally and another advice session from a solicitor. In addition, we organise "heart diseases" seminar to raise awareness of how to avoid heart disease and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We also organised a seminar with a focus on providing information to people who are at risk or suffer from diabetes and bowel cancer awareness workshop. We also arrange events to donate blood and to raise donation for people who suffer cancer. We were the first Mosque to organise an Autism hour for Autistic children in partnership with National Autistic Society (NAS) in 2019. Also we continue our campaign on giving up smoking through workshops and siminars.
Community English Language Teaching Project: British Muslim communities are growing, with the latest 2021 Census estimating approximately 3.87 million Muslims in Britain, compared to 2.7m from the 2011 census. It shows also that the Muslim population in Islington has increased to more than 10%. Islington area has accommodated many Muslims who have moved into the area in recent years, and many of whom worship at our Mosque. We run a project in partnership with other organisations to provide social events and English language classes ESOL for these new residents to enable them to settle and integrate more easily into the society.
Partnership working and performance review: In developing our community programmes we work in partnership with Islington Council and Islington Police and faith organisations. We look to all our partners to give feedback on the success of our initiatives, and the trustees review progress and outcomes of our work at each meeting.