The Baitul Futuh Mosque, the biggest in western Europe, reopened 8 years after it was badly damaged by a fire. Members of our community took part in the opening ceremony to show support and build connections.
Hundreds of people visited the Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden for the inauguration of the new complex and the 19th annual National Peace Symposium. Parliamentarians, academics and faith representatives all attended the re-opening, as well as representatives from our community.
The mosque is reopening with an ornate, geometric frontage following the £20m improvement project and is said to be the largest in western Europe, with space for 10,500 worshippers.
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the worldwide head and Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was there to inaugurate the new complex and delivered a keynote address.
Farhad, an imam of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, said: “This mosque is opening with a peace symposium and that’s quite telling of what we want to achieve with the mosque, an environment of peace that we want to create around us.
“The fact that it’s the UK’s biggest mosque, we want to lead by example in terms of showcasing the true peaceful message of Islam and that’s why the mosque is open to everybody.”
In 2015, the building was left badly damaged after a fire tore through its five-storey administration building, which includes multipurpose halls, offices and guest rooms.
The fire damaged around 50% of the administration building’s ground floor, part of its first floor, and a section of the roof. Luckily, there were only a handful of worshippers in the building at the time, although more than 70 firefighters and 10 fire engines were called to tackle the fire.
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