Ramadan 2023: ‘Tolerance builds when we educate one another’: Meet the young London imam fighting Islamophobia

“I hope that we’re becoming more tolerant as a society but you can’t deny there is still an Islamophobic presence in the UK,” said Imam Adeel Shah.

“Otherwise you wouldn’t have far right groups.”

The 28-year-old, who is one of the youngest imams in the country, travels around the UK and is involved in leading worship at the largest mosque in western Europe - Baitul Futuh mosque in Morden.

Adeel is one of an estimated 30,000 Ahmadiyya Muslims based in the UK, and he began studying to become an imam at 17.

He was born in Pakistan but has lived in the UK since he was six months old.

Since becoming an imam in 2019, Adeel has been committed to changing the narrative of how Islam is represented in the media and encouraging people to visit mosques.

“Tolerance builds when we are educating one another,” he said.

“There are certainly pockets of areas that do have an issue with Islam and that’s the narrative that we’re trying to correct.

“The word Islam means peace. Nothing in Islam allows or accepts terrorism - you can’t have peaceful terrorism.”

By reaching out, Adeel hopes to challenge the misconceptions surrounding Islam.

Following the 2017 Westminster Bridge terror attack in London, Adeel along with 400 to 500 other Muslims visited the bridge wearing blue T-shirts that read: “I am a Muslim, ask me anything?”

Adeel said: “I felt it my innate duty to visit the bridge and to show solidarity and to exemplify the true teachings in Islam.”

Serving the community is an essential part of faith for Adeel and the wider Ahmadiyya Muslim community.

During the pandemic the Baitul Futuh Mosque hosted Merton’s first pop-up vaccination clinic.

“It also hosted a HGV pilot scheme during the UK’s HGV shortage issues,” said Adeel.

“We’ve had schools taking exams in this mosque, we’ve had career fairs, we’ve hosted an international volleyball tournament here recently.

“The mosque and the halls and the facilities are a hub for the communities to come and utilise and everyone is welcome.”

The UK’s Ahmadiyya community has also raised more than £2.5 million for UK causes, as well as planting thousands of trees and helping hundreds of families struggling to feed their children.

The Ahmadiyya community believes that a prophet or Messiah Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was chosen by God and walked the earth from the late 19th century.

But just like the majority of Muslims, their beliefs are centred around the Quran, Six articles of Islamic Faith and Five Pillars of Islam.

The current head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community is the fifth Caliph, His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad. He has addressed both the EU and Scottish parliaments as well as others across the world.

Adeel said that despite sharing many of the central beliefs of Islam, Ahmadiyya Muslims face persecution and prejudice from other branches of Islam.

“If I return to Pakistan, the country I was born in and I say I’m an Ahmadi Muslim, by law and by constitution I can be jailed or imprisoned.

“Even if I’m killed and the police investigate, if the person said ‘I killed him because he’s an Ahmadi Muslim’, the state would turn a blind eye.”

In 2016 an Ahmadi shopkeeper was brutally murdered in Scotland because he was a member of the Ahmadiyya community. 40-year-old Asad Shah was stabbed outside his shop in Glasgow by Sunni Muslim Tanveer Ahmed, who drove over 200 miles from Bradford to kill him.

“We are fighting two battles as on one front we are persecuted for being Muslims and calling ourselves Muslims,” he said.

“In the UK we are trying to correct the narrative which has wrongly been presented about Islam. For example, in the media where it’s associated with terrorists and terrorism for example.”

On Thursday (March 22) Muslims all over the world will start their first day of fasting for Ramadan.

The religious festival marks the ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar and is a time of worship, fasting, prayer, charity, community spirit and spiritual development.

Throughout the month, practising Muslims will be refraining from eating and drinking anything from dawn until sunset.

“The doors of our mosques are always open for people, whether they want to have a tour or just come for a coffee,” Adeel added.