A mosque or a Jamea is the house of worship for Muslims
A mosque or a Jamea is the house of worship for Muslims. The five daily obligatory and some
other prayers are held in a mosque. It is called a masjid, mosque as a derivative
of the Arabic word, / Sajada / which means to prostrate oneself. It is a noun denoting a place.
Another name of a mosque is the Arabic word. Jamea especially if it is a large mosque.
It often and mostly holds a big number of people to perform the Friday special prayer at noon time.
So every Jamea is, a mosque, but not every mosque is, not necessarily called a Jamea.
A Musallah is a name of every small place of prayer, such as at schools, institutions,
rest houses on highways, etc. Prayers performed in these Musallas are, limited at present.
Prayers are called for by means of Adhan, five times a day.
Also Historically, a mosque was the first building to be set up in Madinah, the first capital
for the Muslim state. This was directly after the arrival of prophet Mohammad,
as a migrant from Makkah. The mosque constituted a cornerstone of building
the Muslim society, on all scales, religiously, politically and socially.
On the Didsbury Mosque
The mosque lies in the Didsbury district in the city of Manchester, UK. The mosque
used to be a Methodist Church, it was opened in 1889 AD. It was, changed into a Jamea in 1967, with a diverse congregation of more than one thousand Muslims
of different ethnicities and nationalities. Also The mosque is the favourite destination for a lot of visitors for worship and learning.
There are many promotional, scholarly and social activities.
The Imam and orator of the mosque is Sheikh / Mustafa Abdallah Quraf, Abu Omar.
It is considered one of the biggest Muslim centers all over the Great Britain.
The visitors of the center:
About three hundred visitors visit the center weekly, as the center renders diverse
services to the Muslim community in the city of Manchester and its vicinity.
It also calls for and promotes Islam, and hosts non-Muslims via many activities.
The visitors of the center constitute almost all the categories of Manchester
as well as its vicinity’s residents, such as Arabs, Pakistanis, Indians, Bangalis,
West Africans, Turks, Bosnians, Afghans and many others.
Special aspects:
The Didsbury and the Manchester Center say that they represent a vast portion
of the Muslim community with different origins and Islamic and intellectual schools.
On open days, the mosque gives shows, lectures, sessions of questions and answers and guided tours.
Also, the Didsbury Mosque includes a group of:
- 1 – Volunteers in gardening to preserve their garden on the Borton Road
which contains flowers, the sweet peas, the Mediterranean crops, the salad garden along with pergolas. - 2 – Also, a group of young people was, formed to encourage them to play ping pong,
Badminton, chess etc, as well as food and the Islamic reminders and prayers. - 3 -ALso Within the mosque, there is a juristic circle issuing fatwas, and overlooking
the family affairs, and helps account zakat, and renders consultations
and intermediations in the financial transactions.
It also overlooks the radio coverage for most of the southern Manchester area, the mosque relays the adhan, the prayer itself,
the Friday sermons and the daily reminders.
It also transmits the conversations and the lectures given at the prayer hall in the mosque { lacking a source }.
The center has been registered as a charity foundation at the commission of the charitable organizations.
During the COVID-19 Lockdown in 2021:
They served hot meals and a food bank for their neighbors and the needy, in addition
to a temporary vaccination center for a short period. On the 21st. January 2921,
they were, encouraged by an emergency warning of floods urging many of
the Didsbury residents to evacuate. In response, the mosque offered an emergency hosting
for the residents amongst whom was the advisor of Didsbury West.
The mosque gave the students the chance to learn the Holy Quran
and the Islamic Studies online, via the Zoom application for their safety.
The Mosque under Bombardment:
There are strong bonds inside the mosque with different persons who participated in Libya in the 2011 civil war.
The current mosque Imam traveled to Libya, where he helped the moderate
insurgent groups to oust the Ghadaffi regime.
Another person from the mosque, described in a different way as a remarkable member “of the the Islamic fighting
Libyan Faction”, Abdel Basset Azzoz, one of the regular worshippers,
left Britain in 2009 to join Ayman az- Zawahri, the leader of the terrorist faction in Pakistan,
before heading for Libya to lead the Qaedah network in the east of Libya. In addition,
not fewer than two British recruits of the ISIS State have prayed in the mosque.
In December 2017, Mohammad Abdallah, one of the mosque’s audience went to jail
for ten years for being a member of the ISIS State, when he was, registered as a “specialist sniper”
Retaliation for shelling the Manchester Arena:
The person who carried out the Manchester explosion was, identified as Salman Ramadan Ebidi, the mosque worker.
He invited his father, Ramadan Ebidi ( known also as Abu Ismaeel ) to call for the prayer in the mosque.
His elder brother Ismaeel who was a teacher of the Holy Quran in the Quranic school in the mosque.
Both men were arrested.
The mosque issued a declaration condemning the terrorist attack, also the mosque stood a minute of silence to commemorate the explosion victims.
The Muslims opposing the radical Muslim ideologies said, according
to the “Voice of America” that the mosque should be held partially responsible
for the extremism of al- Ebidi, due to the conservative Salafist Islam which he claims to be adopting.
Rashad Ali, the first fellow of the Strategic Dialogue Institute, and an expert on fighting terrorism,
told the “Vice News”, that the jamea promotes a kind of the Salafist Islam, a rather extremist, and actually controled by a lot of the Libyan militias, including those related to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Rashad said that the Ebidi family belongs to an extremist political Salafist current,
a background indicating that the suicidal person had a shorter course of extremism than the others.
Also One of the audience said in 2017 that he claimed that the “sermon at Didsbury every other
Friday spoke about the wickedness of ISIS” The alleged bomber hated the mosque.
Another one said that Salman Ebidi learnt the Quran by heart in the jamea On the 4th.
November, 2017 the mosque was, closed after receiving a letter of threat.
