Reflections on visit to Green lane Masjid

Things that impressed me about Green Lane Masjid were their:

• stress on values based on their understanding of the teachings of the earliest years of Islam;
• social action – as show in their vaccination centre, foodbank, concern for the homeless and those at risk from winter freeze;
• concern for education and young people which had no doubt encouraged Andy Street to ask to hold a meeting there about them;
• imaginative architectural conversion of the elegant but dated public baths and library;
• concern for their environment shown in their replacement of single-use plastic bottles by giving each member an elegant refillable one;
• willingness to consider an environmental audit of their building to reduce its carbon footprint.

I have passed Green Lane Mosque so many times, it was great to be shown around the Mosque and we were made so welcome by Kamran, Saleem and Mohammed.  The building itself is fascinating – a Victorian swimming pool converted into a very active Mosque serving its community, everyone who lives locally and more widely across Birmingham and through International Aid programmes.

It is clear everyone at the mosque is deeply committed to community good and I am very much looking forward to working collaboratively with Green Lane Mosque in the future.  I have just been in contact with them to see if we can collaborate on a litter picking activity for Sara Park and Kingston Hill Park working with Green Lane Masjid and a number of other partners.  I hope we can work with faith groups and other community groups local to Small Heath, and I believe Green Lane Mosque should play a central role in any local partnership.

My new role at The Active Wellbeing Society as of the beginning of November is ‘Green Social Prescriber’.  I am connecting local groups with volunteers we (TAWS) are in contact with for their wellbeing and to develop local groups caring for their communities.  The litter picking is one of a number of activities we will be providing to engage local people, find out what they want, and to support existing and emerging groups working with their community.

I very much enjoyed the visit and appreciated the time taken by everyone to be so welcoming and accommodating. It felt a privilege to observe the prayers and I have a great appreciation for how much community work the masjid does.

I would recommend others to attend an open day, I have already passed on recommendation to a Special Education Needs college whom I work with, who are interested in visiting.

I was humbled to organise this visit, my passion is to bring people together for all faiths and backgrounds and this was a great way to reach out to others not from my faith. It was great to see representatives from various groups attend, the hosts where very pleasant and hospitable, they provided refreshments and showed us around the Masjid.

My highlight was to see the main hall turned into a Vaccination Centre and seeing people benefiting from it as well as hundreds of events and activities that the Masjid has for the community. It was really insightful and I learnt a lot from my experience.

My message to anyone thinking about a visit to Green lane masjid or one local to you, please do as many hold open days throughout the year, you will always be welcome no matter what faith, no faith or what background you come from. Thank you.