Community joins together for Islamic centre open day in High Wycombe

A community joined together at the opening day of an Islamic centre in Totteridge at the weekend .

Organisers from the Wycombe Islamic Society (WISE) and the mosque opened their doors to members of the public to explain more about their religion and what they do across the town.

Dozens of people showed an interest in the evening – hosted at the Wycombe Islamic Centre in St Marks Close – while mayor of Wycombe councillor Khalil Ahmed, Wycombe MP Steve Baker and district councillor Trevor Snaith were also in attendance .

Following the open evening, WISE chairman Refi Shafi said: “It’s brilliant to see all of these people come along and it has been a really friendly environment .

“We are always open to the community, but today has been a good opportunity to talk to our neighbours and allow them to discover more about what we do here .”

As well as serving food and drinking from 5pm on Sunday, they also gave a presentation about Islam and organisers also spoke of how to try and stop racial hatred and “Islamophobia ”.

Interested parties who came along during the day also witnessed the evening prayer as they were given an English translation to keep up with proceedings .

Cllr Ahmed: “I think it has been a really good event and I applaud WISE’s effort to open their doors and welcome people of the wider community and I strongly encourage events like this to take place more regularly .

“We are hopeful similar events like this will be happening across all other mosques in the Wycombe area and I think it has a great impact on the community in raising awareness of what people are doing .

“Hopefully after today’s open evening people in the surrounding areas can appreciate the work of WISE and be a bit more informed .”