Our MCB Secretary-General, Zara Mohammed and Assistant Secretary-General, Dr Shahzad Amin were invited to meet Muslim communities in Belfast, who have been working for decades to support better cohesion, integration and tackle long standing divisions in Northern Ireland given the wider fragile political context.
The visit included a meeting with the leadership team and volunteers of the Belfast Islamic Centre at their new premises, a place for a growing diverse community, the shared the work they are doing to ensure inclusion of new refugee groups as well as tackle lack of policy inclusion of Muslims. MCB leadership team joined their for friday prayers too, we thank them for warm hospitality and for sharing the history of Muslims in Belfast.
A special highlight of the trip was visit to Clonard Monastery, more than a 100 years old, it has been serving catholic communities and also a place to support peace during The Troubles.
We thank Ed Peterson for showing our team the beautiful monastery, sharing the story of the wall that was put up to divide communities and how it very much resonated the challenges we are seeing in Gaza. He highlighted the importance faith communities play during divisive times and how places of worship can offer space for dialogue.
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The visit included a trip to meeting the Northern Ireland Muslim Family Association, who provide regular daily prayers and support for families, serving hundreds across the community.
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The MCB team were also grateful to meet the team and Masjid Umar who are going a new mosque building project after sadly several arson attempts on their mosque by groups, they had to relocate despite many attempts to build a community centre.
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MCB Secretary-General ended the trip as keynote speaker for the Huwwa Muslim Women Empowerment Conference, bringing together diverse women across Northern Ireland to learn, share and network. MCB SG spoke on the importance of being your authentic self, carrying out a workshop with the wider audience on overcoming limiting beliefs, it was a powerful and engaging session. We thanks the hosts for a wonderful conference.
The visit offered much reflection and hope for communities in challenging places to continue to foster understanding and collaboration.