THE doors of a central Swindon mosque were opened to people of all faiths with the aim of promoting harmony.

Volunteers at the Hazrat Shahjalal Central Mosque and Bangladesh Islamic Centre in Manchester Road welcomed clergy, councillors and the curious for tours, exhibitions and talks.

It was part of a nationwide Visit My Mosque scheme.

Enam Chowdhury, one of the organising committee, explained the idea behind the day was to offer people an opportunity to take a look inside and learn a little about what went on.

“We are showing our neighbours in the community what is in the mosque, what is Islam and what it is to be a British Muslim,” he said.

“Last year the mosque had not taken part but this year we decided that after two years we needed to participate. The last time we did it was such a success.”

“We are very positive,” he said.

“We do a lot of work for the local community.”

As well as helping to feed the homeless in Swindon, the members had raised money for the Rohingya people.

“I went to Bangladesh to distribute food for 2,000 people for a week. That was all raised by the congregation.”

He was full of praise for younger members of the mosque who had taken on much of the work of running the day, which included a chance to hear the call to prayer and watch how prayer was performed live.

Henna demonstrations, talks on the history of the mosque and the work it’s members carried out were also on the programme along with a question and answer session.

The national event was co-ordinated by the Muslim Council of Britain and more than more than 200 mosques around the country took part with members acting as ambassador and volunteers.

It was the largest number since the initiative began four years ago.

A YouGov poll commissioned by the council revealed that 90 per cent of Briton has not been inside a mosque, while 70 per cent had not seen the inside of another faith’s place of worship.

“Despite the multi-religious and multi-cultural society we live in, these poll results show that the majority of Britons have not seen what the place of worship of another faith looks like,” said Secretary General Harun Khan.

The nationwide initiative has been welcomed by leaders of other faiths including the Church of England. Rev Dr Toby Howarth, Bishop of Bradford Rev Dr Toby Howard, who is a trustee of the Christian Muslim Forum said: “Crossing the threshold of a different place of worship can be an important step in learning about and getting to know our neighbours.”

Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE added: “It is always important for people from various communities to meet each other and demonstrate our bonds of harmony and good neighbourliness. This is especially true at a time when peddlers of hatred tragically wish to destroy the bonds that unite our shared society.”