Mosque invites in the community to educate about the Islamic faith

Portsmouth Central Masjid (Mosque) held an open day yesterday to teach the community more about the Islam faith.

Chairperson of the mosque in Fratton, Armani Babar said: ‘There are lots of misconceptions and anxiety about our faith and so we wanted to invite in our neighbours and help them to understand our religion.’

This is the second open event the mosque has held and Armani commented on the reaction from residents.

He said: ‘We have lots of people that come in and are surprised at what they learn.

‘We just want to promote openness and be friendly to our neighbours.’

Members of the mosque were on hand to answer questions over a cup of tea.

Nasir Ali attends prayers at the mosque.

The 37-year-old from Portsmouth said: ‘Some people don’t know what we are about and don’t know the idea of Islam.’

Displays, posters and books were set up in the upstairs of the mosque to provide more information about the history of the faith.

Nasir added: ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover and you have to read it.

‘And for other people this religion may seem alien to them and they would only know about it through what they have heard but it is important to see for yourself.’

The Islamic faith started in the seventh century in Arabia and is the world’s second largest religion.

The 1.8 billion Muslims who follow the religion believe Allah is God and Muhammad is the messenger.

Mel Brown came along to the open day to find out about the religion.

She said: ‘It is really interesting and everyone is so friendly and you realise despite having different faiths we are all the same and it is important to understand each other’s faith.’