As part of Faith In One City, Social Affairs Reporter Catherine Jones talked to many Muslim community leaders in Liverpool. This is an extract from a conversation with Dr. Nabil Sultan, Chairman of the Muslim Cultural Festival of Liverpool.
 

Dr Nabil Sultan, a member of the Yemeni Community Association, organised this year's open air Eid prayers in Sefton Park which attracted 1,000 worshippers. He hopes it could become an annual event.

He said: "Year of Faith gives people the chance to say to non-Muslims, we're a very peaceful and loving people.
"We in Liverpool don't hold a grudge against anybody and we disapprove of all atrocities of fanatics."

Facts:

*Liverpool boasts the first Mosque in England, which was opened at Brougham Terrace by city solicitor and Muslim convert William Abdullah Quilliamon December 25, 1889.

*Quilliam also started the Crescent weekly journal, which ran from 1893-1908, and wrote The Faith Of Islam, the first book in English by a Muslim.

*Islam began in Mecca around AD610. Mecca was the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and is the centre of Muslim pilgrimage.

*8 Brougham Terrace in Liverpool was the first Mosque in England. * One of the first Muslim communities in the UK was established in Liverpool in the 1880s. Many of the earliest settlers were lascars, or sailors.

* The Liverpool Muslim Society was set up in 1953.

* Al-Rahma Mosque in Hatherley Street can accommodate up to 1,000 worshippers.

* The Liverpool Mosque and Islamic Institute caters for the needs of Muslims in south Liverpool. It also provides Islamic education to Muslim children in an evening school.

* This week sees Milad un Nabi, the birth of the Prophet. But it is known as a quiet festival because the date also marks the death of the Prophet.

Apr 26 2004
Liverpool Echo