Open day at the Golden Mosque
I had the privilege of opening my fast in a mosque yesterday.
I say privilege because it's not often I get invited to a mosque and ever since I learnt how to read the Quran at the age of 10 - the mosque wasn't the place for a woman - so I was told but not lead to believe.
The Golden Mosque - one of the oldest in the north west is located on Lower Sheriff Street, Rochdale. It started life in the former conservative club in 1963 and has recently been taking a lead role in trying to promote more youth activities and once the development is complete at the back of the mosque - it will hopefully have more facilities for women.
They had an open day yesterday evening where local non-Muslims were invited to find out about the functions of the mosque, the basic principles of Islam and to learn more about Ramadan.
I was invited as part of the press and the only press that turned up and I glad that I did.
The mosque - though should be an integral part of my life - is not and it felt like a stranger. I wasn’t accustomed to simply entering a mosque, taking my sandals off, covering my hair and going in and taking a place where I felt most comfortable. So on this occasion I was more than pleased to do just that.
I saw the lady mayoresss - and took a seat next to her and listened to the presentation, which I as a Muslim also found interesting. Like for example did you know the first mosque was built in 1889 in Woking? That there are more than 50 mosques in Rochdale - majority of which are packed out during Fridays?
We were then invited to open our fast with the local Muslims, the imam and the president of the mosque, Tahir Mahmood.
And whilst I ate my date before digging into my food - a realisation dawned on me - it was the first time I had opened a fast in a mosque. Whereas the men from the community had the opportunity to do this every day, us women didn’t and I couldn't help but tell those around me that this was a first for me as it was for them! It was I would say quite an exciting moment and one, which I shared with my family and colleagues here at work today.
It was also nice to see the mosque taking such a unique opportunity to showcase the mosque to the wider community. Local councillors, police officers and even members from Rochdale FC had turned up and found it an "eye opener" as they told me later on.
The mosque now hopes to organise the event on a much larger scale next year and hey we’ll even see more women as well.
But by next year I hope other mosques are able to do the same. If each mosque invited its neighbours to break one fast with them and show them what they are about can you imagine how many stereotypes and myths they can dispel!
I found the event very touching indeed and hope in future the mosque will no longer remain a stranger to me.