London, Feb 24, IRNA – Britain’s mainstream Muslim organisation has welcomed the findings of the first comprehensive survey of mosques in England and Wales that show the contribution they made to local communities through a wide range of services and activities.
“The survey charts how an overwhelming majority (94%) deliver educational program for children and young people and three in five (61%) carry out women’s groups/activities,” said the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).
“It is also a welcome information that increasingly more and more mosques have young people (52%) and women (15%) represented in their management responsibility. Far from being a source of separation, mosques are integral to community cohesion and development,” MCB said.
The survey, the first of its kind carried out by the Charity Commission, found that mosques played roles in providing space for worship, sport and leisure activities, healthy living programs and assistance for senior citizens.
It also revealed that the average number of worshippers attending Friday prayers was around 400, rising to over 600 for Eid festivals.
The survey of over 700 mosques also reported that estimated annual income averaged.
Manazir Ahsan, chair of MCB’s Mosques Committee, criticised the way Islamic institutions in Britain have often been falsely portrayed by some quarters and in certain sections of the media.
“Despite the good work emanating from the majority of our mosques, and regardless of authentic, and citable evidence such as those presented by the Charity Commission, I am in no doubt that bigots and doommongers will nevertheless continue to peddle Islamophobic hysteria, insisting that mosques are incapable of promoting community cohesion,” Ahsan said.
Regardless of any hidden agendas, he insisted that Britain’s two million Muslim community “must prove these naysayers wrong by opening up and welcoming all people to our mosques.”
The findings come after the British government announced controversial proposals back in 2005, but which were later shelved, to give the police powers to close mosques that fail to comply with an order to prevent them from being used to foment extremism.
The survey, published Monday by the Charities Commission’s Faith and Social Cohesion Unit, is part of its wider work with faith-based charities, which make up around 20% of 190,000 registered charities in England and Wales.
Seyyed Ferjani, chair of the recently-established Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board also welcomed the research as “a really useful starting point on which we can build.”
Ghulam Rasool, head of the Faith and Social Cohesion Unit, praised the way mosques in general engaged positively in the survey, saying it provided a “useful insight into Muslim communities.”