Since its founding in 1977, South London Islamic Centre has pioneered a number of very successful activities for the Muslim community and we are continually striving to improve our circumstances.
Apart from the regular prayer, five times daily and madrasah classes for our children, we were also currently providing facilities for the tuition of children in various core subjects such as Mathematics, English and science. The centre was providing free tuition to deserving children, meets burial costs for the needy, a food bank to provide basic necessities, and even provides help and emergency homes for homeless families.
The Centre has always provided holiday play schemes for children up to the age of 16 during the summer holidays for both boys and girls and at times as many as 300 have benefited from this project. These play schemes have included sports, outings, seminars and religious summer schools. Our summer project also included organised trips for mothers and their children and these proved to be extremely popular. We hope that with continuing funding these activities can be strengthened and expanded. Indeed, our summer activities caught the attention of documentary producers and consequently, some of the first programs on Islam to be broadcast on Network Television were recorded and produced at the Centre. Some of these continue to be shown in schools across the country.
Over the last 20 years this Centre has helped raised over £250,000 for other charities and individuals such as Muslim Aid, Islamic Relief, Bosnia, Imran Khan Cancer Hospital, Indian Earthquake Appeal, Pakistan Society for Rehabilitation of the Disabled, Bangladesh Flood Relief, Edhi Welfare (international) Trust and many more. We also directly assisted in the establishment of a library in a remote village school in Pakistan and met the cost of bringing electricity to a girls school, including the supply and installation of lights and fans in all of the classrooms.
The Centre was the first in the South London area to offer Muslim burial facilities and it maintains a healthy fund for this purpose. We were also one of the first Mosques in the country to conduct part of the Friday speech in English, recognising that our congregation originates from many different parts of the world. This tradition of conducting speeches in English is still maintained today. Eminent Muslim scholars are regularly invited to address ever increasing audiences. The Islamic Centre has also maintained separate facilities for sisters since it was opened and it is still one of the very few Mosques to maintain constant provision for this important part of the community.
Our members have always maintained close links with local hospital and prisons, providing help in whatever form is required to the Muslim community. When the local Bosnian and Somalian Muslims required assistance for teaching their children in their own languages for example, the Centre was able to provide the necessary facilities and continues to do so.
The Centre also has a good history of addressing national and international issues concerning Muslims through local councillors, politicians and the leaders of the other faiths. The Centre has always taken an active part in local community affairs and maintains close contact with the police, the local council and schools. Those Mosques and Islamic Centres that are blessed with such active community members should be afforded all the support and assistance by Muslims that is required.
The Centre is a well established Mosque and Islamic Centre and since it’s founding has taken seriously the spiritual and academic well-being of the Muslim community. We always strongly encourage and advocate the unity and brotherhood of the Muslim Ummah and have always made the Centres facilities available to all Muslim societies and organisations. South London Islamic Centre has been and will be an important and major focus of Muslim activity in South London, insha-Allah and a source of peace and security to the Muslim community.