‘A beacon of peace’: London’s oldest mosque celebrates centenary

Fazl Mosque was used as an air raid shelter in the war – but that is not its only link to a pivotal moment in world history

Exactly 100 years ago the Guardian wrote about the opening of London’s first mosque, an impressive white building surrounded by immaculate flower gardens in the heart of south London suburbia.

Ahead of centenary celebrations at the Fazl Mosque in Wandsworth, also known as London Mosque, there is lots of activity taking place. Putney Labour MP Fleur Anderson pops in and speaks about how well loved the mosque, which is home to members of the UK’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community, is in the area.

According to Mahmood Rafiq of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK, being part of the wider community is a key part of the mosque’s ethos. They give out sweets to local children at Eid, extend Christmas greetings to neighbours, help to keep the local environment clean and show support for other faiths if they are subjected to attacks.

The mosque has been used for all sorts of other purposes alongside prayer, acting as an air raid shelter during the second world war, and more recently as a centre for blood donation and Covid 19 vaccinations.

“Thankfully we haven’t experienced a lot of Islamophobia at this mosque,” says Rafiq. “But there has been an increase in incidents of low level harassment such as cars driving by and hooting their horns aggressively.”

The purchase of land to build the mosque on was largely financed by a group of Ahmadi Muslims from Qadian in India, many of them women who sold their jewellery so that London’s first mosque could be established, even though they knew they would be unlikely to ever be able to visit the finished building.

Munir Dean, 65, a stalwart of the mosque, can trace its history through his own family, with his grandfather and father playing key roles in the mosque’s development. He said the founders of the mosque had a particular vision in the aftermath of the first world war of faith, peace and uniting humanity.

In its early days the mosque entertained visitors from high society such as Viscount and Viscountess Allenby, and had some very English traditions such as serving tea out of the finest china cups. “Visitors to the mosque were much more likely to be served scones with clotted cream than samosas,” he says.

Bilal Nuttall, who grew up in the same street as Lancashire actor, singer and comedian Gracie Fields, converted to Islam after serving in the Middle East during the first world war and became the mosque’s muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. According to the mosque’s historical records, the imam of the mosque in the 1930s, Abdur Rahim Dard, played a pivotal role in developments leading to the establishment of Pakistan as a separate country from India.

He had been advocating for the rights of Muslims in India but had become disillusioned and was considering remaining in the UK and continuing his career in law. Dard convinced him otherwise and he made a keynote speech in the Fazl Mosque gardens, which proved to be a turning point in India’s future and partition of then British India into independent India and Pakistan. He returned to India the following year and became governor general of Pakistan when it became an independent state in August 1947.

As the community reflects on the mosque’s last hundred years, Dean is looking ahead. “Our message is quite timeless. It has no expiry date. Bring on the next hundred years,” he says.