Islamic Culture in London

Abstract

THE announcement by Mr. G. N. Hall, Undersecretary of State in the Colonial Office, in the House of Commons on November 13 that the Government at an early opportunity would invite Parliament to vote a sum not exceeding £100,000 for the purchase of a site for the erection of a mosque and centre of Islamic culture is one which has caused intense gratification to Moslems in Great Britain, and will be deeply appreciated throughout the Moslem world. The need has long been felt for an adequate centre of this kind at which Moslems in Great Britain might offer their prayers, develop Islamic culture and preserve their religious tradition. His Excellency Hassan Nashaat, Egyptian Ambassador in London, in announcing the gift by broadcast in Arabic “to my brothers in Islam” as reported in The Observer of November 17, appealed to the Moslem world for a sum of £500,000 towards the building fund, having previously given an assurance that this great centre of Islamic culture would belong to the whole Moslem world and would be controlled by its representatives irrespective of sect or denomination. The gift from the British Government, as was suggested in a reply by Mr. Hall to a supplementary question, in a sense is reciprocal to a gift from the Egyptian Government some years ago, when the site for a cathedral was presented to the British community in Egypt.