Please note:  As a general policy, we will only provide information here about events held in the Madina Masjid. 

Please do not send us information on your events if they are being held elsewhere as we are not currently able to advertise external events.

Visit by Permanent Secretary of DCFS

We are pleased to have hosted a visit by David Bell, the Permanent Secretary of the Central Government Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

The purpose of DCSF is to make England the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up. The Department aims to:

•    help children and young people stay happy and healthy
•    keep them safe and sound
•    give them a top class education
•    help them stay on track.

The Permanent Secretary’s visit was organised to provide him with an overview of the services the Madina Masjid provides to communities with regard to the Children, Schools and Families agenda.  He wanted an insight into the daily challenges and achievements of those at the front line of government policies.  It was an opportunity to look at best practice and allow discussion and free exchange of ideas.   


Picture:  Kash Walayat OBE, Senior Civil Servant for DCSF and David Bell, Permanent Secretary with members of the Madina Masjid Trust Gulnawaz Khan, Ishfaq Hussain, Basheer Khan and Haji Mohammed Nazir OBE. (Photo courtesy of DCSF.)

WalkTalk

We were delighted to host a visit from Gill Hicks and the WalkTalk team who have now completed a month long journey from Leeds to Central London.

On July 7, 2005 Gill was a commuter travelling to work on the London Underground – she was horribly injured in one of the suicide bomb attacks that took place and lost both her legs as a direct result of the blast.  Despite this she says that day she witnessed the power of humanity as many people in the emergency serv ices helped in her rescue and recovery.  In her own words:

That morning I was stripped of my identity, when the emergency services came to rescue me I was just a body with a faint pulse. These people were prepared to put their own lives at risk to save someone whom was unidentifiable, to them it didn't matter if I was a man or a woman, it didn't matter if I was Muslim, Jewish, Christian or agnostic; it didn't matter if I was rich or poor, all that mattered was that I was a life, a precious human life that needed their help. I was admitted to hospital labelled literally as 'one unknown'.

I was saved many times by many people that day. It was due to their absolute dedication and sheer determination to keep me alive that I am here today - no one ever gave up on me, even when there seemed little hope, when my prospects looked very bleak, no one gave up. One medic who was crucial to my rescue said to me when we first met many months after the bombings, that I had reinforced his belief that 'where there is life, there is always hope'.

 

I have witnessed the power of humanity, the unconditional love that can be exchanged between strangers - and it is based on these real acts that we firmly belief that people can overcome conflict; that we all, each of us a "one unknown" can make a significant difference.

WALKTALK is an ambitious and challenging initiative offering a wide variety of people of all ages – representing a broad spectrum of opinions and ideas – new opportunities to meet, walk and talk with each other about matters of belief and conscience, especially those that are most challenging and divisive.
There are Official Points at locations along the route for people to come and join WALKTALK, whether for an hour or two, or more as the team walk through. Working in close collaboration with many of these towns and cities along the route, WALKTALK will focus attention on projects which are already fostering local community cohesion. 

A number of members and Trust representatives attended the official reception to the WalkTalk team in Sheffield Town Hall on Thursday 24th July 2008 and also talk part in the Sheffield stretch o the walk on Friday 25th July.  The Sheffield element finished in Mount Pleasant Park which is very close to Madina Masjid so we were very pleased to be able to host a visit by Gill Hicks and her team.  Gill Hicks and Zulfi Hussain MBE of Global Promise addressed the congregation before Jumma (Friday) prayer.  The Madina Masjid Trust presented members of the WalkTalk team with English language versions of the Quran as gift of appreciation for their hard work.

It is hoped that the dialogue will continue in each of the communities where WALKTALK stops overnight, so creating a chain of human connections between Leeds and London.  Further information about WalkTalk is available from the WalkTalk website by clicking here.   A selection of photos of the visit are displayed below.

We were pleased to host a visit by Ambassador Robert Holmes Tuttle and his wife Mrs Maria Tuttle.  Their visit to the Madina Masjid was part of a number of activities on March 22 2007 when they came to Sheffield including meeting the Lord Mayor and visiting city regeneration projects.  We were pleased to organise a meeting with members of the local Muslim community.


Photo:  Ambassador Robert Tuttle and Mrs Maria Tuttle with local Muslim community members at the Madina Masjid.  (Photo courtesy of US Embassy, London)