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The mosque now promotes multicultural learning and interfaith dialogue, providing education programs and lessons on Islam. (Photo from the mosque's website) |
CAIRO — Flourishing for years, falling into disuse for some and now picking up again, the Shah Jahan Mosque mirrors the complexities in the variable relationship between Britain and Islam.
"People say that miracles don't happen," Muslim Salamat, the mosque's chairman and historian, told The Times on Saturday, March 29.
"But there's a miracle in Woking."
The mosque was built in 1889 to meet the religious needs of Muslim students studying European languages at Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner's Oriental Institute in Britain.
With a sumptuous interior, it was decorated with valuable objects Leitner had brought during his travels around the world.
It also had an oriental museum collection.
"Dr Leitner has so arranged every department that you can trace at once the influence of Greek art on the art of India," said a visitor to the mosque.
"He has done this by bringing within a chair's length' the sculpture, the literature and the coins of the period."
Named after the ruler of Bhopal in central India, the mosque quickly became a magnet for British Muslims.
It was frequented by the Queen's servants at Windsor and served as a token symbol of tolerance when Muslim diplomats and dignitaries visited Britain.
The Shah of Iran occasionally performed prayers in the mosque.
Beacon
But when Leitner died in 1899, the mosque fell into disrepair and his heirs sold off the remainder of the Oriental Institute and its collection.
The situation remains as such until 1912 when Indian lawyer Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din visited Britain.
During a visit to the mosque for prayers, he found the worship place desolate and neglected, being used as a barn for animals.
There was only a lone copy of the Noble Qur'an discarded in the corner of the prayer room.
Immediately, Kamal-ud-Din set up the Woking Muslim Mission & Literary Trust to restore the mosque and reestablish its legacy as a beacon of multicultural learning.
The Woking Mission published a quarterly periodical called the Islamic Review to spread the message of Islam in Britain.
Within a few years, through the work of Kamal-ud-Din and his Muslim Mission, Islam established a definite foothold and grew steadily in Britain.
It now promotes multicultural learning and interfaith dialogue, providing education programs and lessons on Islam.
"I get questions about things like the women's role, human rights, and people asking about whether terrorism is sanctioned or justified in Islam," said Liaquat Ali Amod, the mosque's head of education program.
"This happens no matter how much we try to do to contain radicalism. No one wants to live in fear."
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