Interfaith Event Held at Baitul Futuh Mosque, London

On Tuesday, 9 October 2018, an interfaith event was held at Western Europe’s Largest Mosque, Baitul Futuh Mosque London. “Christianity Encountering Islam”, was a part of the Faith Encounters Autumn Lecture Series 2018. Co-hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK and St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, it was the first ever event to be held at a Mosque.

On the day of event, guests were welcomed with refreshments on arrival and had an opportunity to review the many excellent exhibitions displaying wonderful projects of various organisations, including, Outreach exhibition on The Holy Qur’an, Special display of The Holy Quran in different languages, Review of Religions, Voice of Islam, Hazrat Khalifa-tul-Masih V(aba), IAAAE exhibition, Humanity First Exhibition and Exhibition on the Encounter series of lectures.

Tours of the Baitul Futuh mosque were conducted and were very popular with the guests. The formal proceedings started at 7:30pm with the recitation of the Holy Quran, followed by its translation and then a reading from the Holy Bible.

Fareed Ahmad, National Secretary External Affairs, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK gave the welcome introduction and then guest speeches were delivered by Maulana Ataul Mujeeb Rashed, Imam of The London Mosque, on the ‘Unity and Humanity in Islam’ and by Revd Dr Sam Wells (St Martin in the Fields Church) on ‘Humanity and Divinity in the Christian Faith’.

Closing remarks were delivered by Rafiq Hayat, National President (Amir) Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK. This was followed by a Question and Answer session and silent prayer to close formal proceedings before dinner was served. More than 350 guests with over 200 external guests participated in the event. Some guests had travelled long distances from Birmingham and even from Somerset to participate in the event. Social Media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK shared the live updates on the proceedings.