On the 29th January, Imam Qasim joined a panel of community cohesion advocates at the London Muslim Centre to express Al-Khair Foundation’s support for the Mosque and Community Engagement Service launch by Faith Regen Foundation (FRF).

This new project supported by AKF aims to help develop 100 mosques across the UK into vibrant community hubs. Part of the project also includes training for religious leaders, capacity building and workshops on team building. This project will also promote interfaith harmony as mosques will be encouraged to work and liaison with other faith groups.

Other notable speakers at the launch of the programme included Tower Hamlets councilors: Mayor John Biggs and Deputy Mayor Sirajul Islam, and the MP for East Ham: Rt Hon Stephen Timms. MP Stephen Timms advocated the importance of being part of the wider society and how this doesn’t necessarily mean that “we need to belong to the same thing???, but that we belong to something that is part of the wider community, thus linking us all together.

The evening ended with a delicious dinner and award ceremony for participants of FRF’s ‘Spicing Up English’, a unique project that merged English classes with cooking for women learning English as an additional language to provide them essential skills to best integrate them into society. The participants of this project even put their skills into practice by preparing and cooking delicious appetisers for the evening dinner that followed the launch of the community cohesion programme.