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The mosque has turned a new leaf and developed into a proactive social center after standing idly for years. |
LONDON — With open days that attract Britons of every stripe, sports programs and integration efforts, the Finsbury Park mosque in northern London is emerging with a new look in a stark contrast to blemished images as an incubator for extremists and a platform for hate preachers.
In the last open day, "we had reached out to non-Muslims and tried to project an untwisted image of Islam as a religion of peace, tolerance and co-existence," mosque imam Ahmed Saad told IslamOnline.net in an interview.
"The mosque is now at good terms with local authorities and Scotland Yard."
The mosque had been associated in the past with its former controversial imam Abu Hamza Al-Masri, who was dismissed as the mosque imam in February 2003 by the Charity Commission, the statutory organization that regulates charities in England and Wales.
Al-Masri had gained notoriety for his hardline sermons, which supported Al-Qaeda and the terrorist 9/11 attacks in the United States, which left nearly 3,000 people killed.
Al-Masri, particularly distinctive because of his hook and his single eye, is now serving a seven-year sentence in prison for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.
He has appealed against a government decision to extradite him to the United States on charges of providing support to Al-Qaeda.
"The mosque was off-limits to many Finsbury Muslim residents because of its bad image," Rafiq, a 34-year-old British Muslim of Algerian descent, told IOL.
"Police were used to monitoring the mosque round the clock, considering it a terror haven."
Built in 1990, the four-storey mosque accommodates 1,000 worshippers and is located at an area with a large Muslim population mainly hailing from Algerian and Tunisian origin.
Facelift
Now the mosque has turned a new leaf and developed into a proactive social center after standing idly for years.
The mosque was renamed in 2005 to the North London Central Mosque.
It has given due attention to cultural and educational activities including Arabic and English courses for beginners.
Sport now figures high on the mosque's new agenda, organizing sports training basically in swimming.
Posters can be seen at the mosque's entrance calling for donations to Gaza, which has been under a crippling, months-long Israeli siege.
"Muslims living in the West are preoccupied by the issues of the Muslim nation and at the same time they want to integrate into their societies," said Saad.
But the mosque is giving also undivided attention to burning issues at home.
Saad says it is incumbent upon Muslim citizens in the West to be more preoccupied with their internal problems.
"British Muslims are facing a casserole of formidable challenges that need painstaking efforts to be addressed," he said.
"It is my duty as an imam to give priority to such internal problems."
British Muslims, estimated at nearly two million, have been in the eye of storm since the July 2005 bombings, which killed 56 people, including four Muslim bombers.
They have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by police for no apparent reason other than being Muslim.
An ICM poll had shown that a sweeping majority of 91 percent of British Muslims were "loyal" to Britain and 80 percent still wanted to live in and accept Western society.
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