DISCOVER RAMADAN

The EDI steering group extended an invitation to ‘Discover Ramadan’ hosted by East London Mosque in Whitechapel, in association with Muslims in Rail, Network Rail Multi-Faith Network and TfL Muslim Network. After attending the EDI Ramadan presentation, Toni-Anne Davis, communications coordinator, was curious to learn more. She shares her experience below.

East London Mosque is the busiest mosque in the Western region, with over 30,000 attendees per week. Their largest audiences span throughout Ramadan, where they feed over 800 people daily. They can sustain this practice through the charitable nature of their community. Fundraisers can be credited for the extension of the mosque to fit over 35,000 people at once. Top donators are recognised on donation walls throughout the mosque, and names are honoured via tiles.

The tour guide, Sultana, led us through the mosque to the Baraka Khan Visitor Gallery. We witnessed prayer and were taught what takes place during this time. The Imam – the male lead preacher, leads the congregational prayer. All prayers are directed toward the Qibla, the direction of the Kaaba (the sacred building at Mecca), to which Muslims turn at prayer. We oversaw the male prayer room; men and women pray separately in public settings. Though in private spaces, the whole family can pray together.

The mosque hosts several Islam courses year-round with many organisations, including The Met and London Underground. Courses are also available to accommodate Muslims and non-Muslims and those that speak different languages. These languages include Arabic, Bengali, English, BSL and sign language.

East London Mosque has a business hub, gym, nursery, primary and secondary school and can host several events throughout the year to support its growing community. They offer counselling sessions and mental health services for women to address issues such as domestic violence and the impact of the increased cost of living crisis.

It notably has a beehive with honey distributed to their members when available too.

Before heading to our next stop, we witnessed the preparation of the large banquet for Iftar.

We were welcomed into a room where notable speakers such as Nasir Khan MBE – Muslims in Rail, Jeremy Westlake – CFO Network Rail & GBRTT, Arif Samad – TFL Muslim Network and representatives from Muslim Aid to name a few.

Sufia Alam talked us through the history of East London Mosque, which opened in 1985 after over 70 years of being a ‘floating mosque.’ She shared insight on acquiring land to launch the project by Prince Charles to build the London Muslim Centre (LMC). Their website is home to the ELM archives, where you can find the history of one of the oldest mosques and the Muslim community in East London.

We were given insight into what charitable work the community is working on, such as the Muslim Aid campaign #FASTMoney, partnering with Muslim Rail Network to support the victims of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and those impacted in Syria as well as the work the rail industry is doing to insight change.

We closed with a sermon by Sheikh Mohammed Mahmoud OBE – Senior Imam, before breaking fast with a wide range of food.