2 years ago I wrote about cleanliness in some London mosques or rather about the lack of it here, while London does have a huge number of mosques, west London seems to lack behind, many of us have to go to the Central Mosque of Brent as it is the only one in that area, I have known this mosque for at least 15 years if not more, it has always been under construction, they keep collecting money but it may not be enough or something, only recently they added a dome and the minaret is still being built.
The main problem with this mosque is that it really is quite dirty, the carpets are soiled, the toilets, well the less said about them the better! I usually pray on Friday in the basement because the main hall gets very busy, the basement is so dirty and full of greasy cooking pots and pans and bags of sand and cement that you end up with dusty clothes as you leave, there are even bags of cement there that have been there for years and have become rock solid yet no one bothered to remove them, this mosque is near to my work that is why I go there.
The reason I am writing this was because the Friday before Eid,
after the prayers as I left by the side door I noticed a toilet seat & flush just by this side door and I thought this does not look good but no surprise here as the people running this mosque do not seem to care anyway. Few days later I saw a Friend of mine who is Scottish and Catholic, he works in a children's home just behind the mosque, he told me that as he left the home where he works going towards the tube station, he passed the mosque as usual and just by the gate's front door of the mosque, right under the sign with the mosque's name, he saw a toilet seat standing there and looking very offensive, he thought perhaps some Islamophobic person did that as an insult to the mosque to make it look like a public toilet, he actually went in and knocked at the door of the mosque, then spoke to some old man who could hardly speak English let alone look after a mosque, then he spoke to another man and told him about the toilet seat, the man admitted that it was their fault and that they were waiting for someone to come and collect it and throw it away, my friend told him that it is shameful to put a toilet seat outside like that, that they should have more respect to the mosque and that this might make other Muslims think that it was an attack by some ignorant non-Muslim, they agreed that it was wrong and thanked my friend.
Next day on his way to work as he passed the mosque, the toilet seat was still there only this time it had a bin bag wrapped round it! I asked my friend if he took a picture, he said he thought about it but didn't want to offend anyone, shame he didn't!
I wonder if that toilet seat was put there by an anti-Muslim person, what would have happened and how much crying of injustice and Islamaphobia we would have heard??
Are people running this mosque ever going to clean it up? it really does not cost much to be clean and tidy, it is part of our faith after all.
15 comments:
really i felt very sorry about those actions , but you as a muslim there you must do a soultion to similar proplems ..cuz they can be taken against muslims & we 've got alot of thing s like thta know
The problem about the mosques are the people who runs them, and most of them they don’t have a clue. Cleanliness suppose to be part of our Islamic believe but unfortunately, most Muslims are far from it, and they tend to bring their bad habits to foreign countries, i.e. UK with them and give a very bad impression about Islam to any none Muslim. I actually found the Regent’s park mosque toilet facility are offensive to say the least, the place you could actually swim from the water that flood the place , and no need to talk about the cubicle’s , and not the mention the carpets ..etc etc and this is supposed to be attended by diplomats and royalties, and I have a feeling that they don’t use these common toilets they probably use special ones allocated for them somewhere in that centre, and regarding to the mosque that you attend I think there must be some kind of corruption going on, otherwise how come that building didn’t finish all these years?
Lastly, the eye sore toilet seat that you mentioned, if no one from the mosque administration want to bother and do something about, I suggest that you act yourself and get a van and dump it and you will get “ Ajer” from Allah for your good deed, if you couldn’t do that then I suggest give a tenner ( £10) to the bin man and he will collect the toilet seat gladly, salamat.
i'm sorry about my ignorance...is there such a thing as tithe, a tenth part of something paid as a voluntary contribution or as a tax especially for the support of the church, in islam?
in christian churches i'm positive that it exists. this money is used to take care of the facilities and to pay employees!
Do some thing brother do not just talk about it because you are a member of this community. No one will say why you cleaning the masjid if you do so.
some muslims are just disgracefull lazy and inactive for their religion.
you should have moved it, and it'd have been written by god as an act of charity
ليبيا ضحية عملية نصب عالمية
الطاقة النووية السلمية أصبح موضوع قديم عفى عليه الزمن ومحفوف بالمخاطرومعظم الدول المتقدمة بدأت تستعمل بدائل أخرى سلمية للطاقة أقل تكلفة وأقل خطرا وتحقق نفس النتائج.
الطاقة النووية وحتى السلمية منها لها مخاطرعلى المدى القصيروالطويل منها أنه لايوجد حل معقول للتخلص من النفايات النووية .. اذا تخلصنا منها فى البحر أو فى أعماق التربة فهى ستسمم المحاصيل والاسماك .. واذا حدث لاقدر الله زلازال وانفجرت المحطة فهذا انفجار نووى كامل .. أما اذا أخطأ عامل فالخطورة قائمة وهناك حادثة "ثرى ميل ايلاند" بالولايات المتحدة و" تشرنوبل " فى أوكرانيا بسبب التقصير البشرى.. هذا بالاضافة الى ارتفاع نسبة الاصابة بسرطان الدم للبشر المقيم قرب المحطات النووية " طبقا للتقارير البريطانية والألمانية".
ارجو من كل من يقراء هذا ان يزور ( مقالات النووى .. كمان وكمان !!- كارت أحمر - كارت أخضر ) فى هذا الرابط:
http://www.ouregypt.us/culture/main.html
hello Weda
most mosques here are run by different communities and they are supposed to look after them, most do not but will not accept anyone else doing something.
weldemdina
yes as I said certain communities run the mosques here and usually badly.
Regent's Park mosque is one of the worst, I only go there very rarely but I never do Wudu in their smelly flooded toilets, I come prepared.
the mosques I wrote about collects so much money, I heard of corruption, in fact in East London many purpose built mosques have been built in the last few years while this one is still struggling and the building design is really bad.
I went there on Friday for the prayers, the toilet was not there anymore.
hello Leandra
I know that this mosque collects money every Friday before & after prayers and while all the speech is in Urdu which I do not understand, they always mention the money they collected each week in English, it is supposed to cover the maintinance and staff wages!!
anonymous
writing about it is better than nothing.
these mosques employ people, many of them are brought from Asia or other places, they do not have a clue about looking after the place, I have seen before cleaners at Regent Park mosque listening to their MP3 players while the place is dirty, why should I do their job? isnt that just encouraging corruption even more?
Libyeah (welcome to the blog)
it has been moved and as I said they do have paid employees that have no clue about cleaning standards.
thanks anonymous for the link, I will check it later.
Hi Anglo-Libyan
As the saying goes “everybody’s business is nobody’s business”, the duties that we suppose everybody, except us, is going to do usually end up being left undone, worshipers blame the mosque administrators for not taking the garbage away, while the administrator blame the worshipers for not making enough donations, and the vicious circle never ends..
Why don’t we light a candle instead of damning the darkness?, what will happen if someone volunteers to take the waste in his car and throws it away?!
The prophet “PBUH” said: "The dirt collected from a mosque is the dowry of brides in heaven
“قمامة السجد مهر الحور العين”
I urge all Muslims in London to take practical steps towards eradication of the phenomenon of the dirty mosques, and thank Anglo-Libyan for raising the issue.
A catholic stand up for such an out rageous display..on the other hand ,the mosque keeper did no more than wrapping it up.!!!!!!
I raise my hat in respect to your friend..
It is really sad how much harm done by muslims them selves to Islam....and i join my voice to u:wat if an islamo-phobic did??? a really good question to ask...
thank u anglo-libyan for such a good post..
salam Khalid and many thanks for your input.
I wish in reality it was that simple, you know in London different communities run and manage different mosques and many of them would not accept anyone trying to tell them that they are wrong or even trying to help them but I add my voice to you, there many people here that have the time to help.
ahlan BC
I agree with you about my friend, he really is a good man who has a lot of sympathy for Muslims and has always supported Muslim issues, thanks you BC.
There's a masjid in Alexandria, Egypt, just near the Citadel, which has the most disgusting bathroom in the women's section.
But I heard from a few friends that there is one masjid in alex which has the cleanest, most beautiful bathroom facilities.
This is sad-& it shows ignorance & apathy of Muslims. And you make such a valid point-if a non-Muslim did this the reaction would have been very different
salam bb_aisha and welcome to my blog.
So true!
I am currently helping to run a new mosque here in Copenhagen, too (check it out http://www.moskeforeningen.dk/?page_id=17) and tidyness is a part of our faith; we should all take care not to dirten the house of prayer.
But u are right; it´s an "Arab thing" - just look at the roads in Tripoli and outside, littered with garbage bags...so sad.
BTW, I am back blogging so far....(Safia)
salam Safia
good to see you back :o)
Post a Comment