East London Mosque: Exploring Religion in London

welcome to the East London mosque the East London mosque sits in London's East End a very diverse borough and is home to the largest Muslim community here in the UK the East London mosque trust is a hundred and six years old a campaign began to build a purpose-built mosque by 1985 a purpose-built mosque was open to the community this included a large minaret from which the call to prayer is broadcast and a striking gold dome which is a landmark now here in London's East End it was opened by the Imam of Mecca which saw about 15,000 people turn up here to pray very soon after the community and the Maus together started a campaign to build the London Muslim Center by 2004 the London Muslim Center was completed thousands of Muslims come here because it is one of the largest Muslim centres in the UK and we get approximately about seven and a half to eight thousand people coming here on a Friday to pray Muslims can pray anywhere but mostly Muslims like to come to a mosque so Muslims pray five times a day the busiest day for for the mosque is the Friday prayer which is the special prayer which is equivalent to like Sunday Mass for the Sabbath the religious figurehead of a mosque is called in the hammam this is the individual that provides the religious and spiritual guidance to the congregation the most important part of the Friday service is the sermon because that's when Muslims listen to some advice from the Imam when it is time for prayer everyone prays together in congregation led by the Imam and the imam recites verses from the holy quran during Ramadan we have Muslims coming from far and wide almost like being in Mecca because of the number of worshipers that come here so it is a very sacred and unique experience for people we have a dedicated center called the Miriam Center for women's projects and services and there's a space for women to pray now women pray separate to the men not because they are discriminated upon it's because they choose to have their own prayer space the Moscone Center has over 33 projects and services in different areas we have a project called pro bono which is a free legal advice clinic provided to the community and it's used by non-muslims and Muslims alike one of our training partners called faith region provides IT and employment support services we have two schools based here we have counseling projects for women the East London mosque is definitely London's local mosque it's the mosque that is accessed not just by one community but many communities of different Muslims from all over London who come to pray in this mosque and we're proud to have one of the largest mosques in Western Europe based here in the heart of London you

Channel: OpenLearn from The Open University

Views: 91,900

Keywords: The Open University, Religion, Islam, Sunni, Mosques

Id: SV9x8m1DUvk

Length: 3min 57sec (237 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 03 2016