It’s a cold night before Ramadan, and inside Cumbria’s partially completed South Lakes Islamic Center (SLIC), a few men are completing health and safety checks.
The building is just a shell, with exposed bricks, hanging wires and no installed lights or heaters, but the building materials have been removed in a large area to hold congregational prayers at night.
Cumbria’s Muslim community is excited that the center will open, but only outside construction times, but word is quietly spreading for fear of being targeted by far-right groups.
“During Ramadan, we have nowhere else to go,” said Aban Hussain, 40, a mosque chair. “Therefore, we have to open it in a way that is not 100% ready, but it’s still something we can use. Ramadan only comes once a year, so it’s time to go for it, even if it’s a little inconvenient for us.”
Hussain has lived in Barrow-in-Furness for 18 years, working as a senior engineer for an oil and gas company. Although he said access to the countryside was “wonderful” to raise his three sons, there was one thing missing: a mosque.
Barrow’s nearest mosque is over 50 miles (80km) away in Lancaster. With only three mosques in Cumbria, the Muslim community of healthcare professionals working in the borough had to hire function halls for congregational prayers every Friday, working around other hall bookings and spending £600 a month.
“There are no facilities for Islamic education, prayer or community here so many doctors stay for only a year and a half and leave,” said Dr Ghulam Jeelani, 76, who lived in the borough for 40 years and worked as a GP before retiring last year. “So we started looking for land.”
In 2022, the borough council approved a planning application from these doctors to build a three-storey mosque and community center in Dalton-in-Furness. Barrow and Dalton worked with locals to convince those who objected that a mosque was needed, despite the small Muslim population – only 0.4%. They have since been raising the required £2.5m in funding.
Years in the making, SLIC was featured in GB News, described as a “mega mosque” in the Lake District, targeting the far-right. Activists from Ukip and Britain First regularly demonstrated outside the construction site, waving flags and hurling insults.
A LOCAL man has raised funds to hire a specialist barrister to fight against planning permission. “All of a sudden, this wave of protests started, and everything was in our face, all the hate, all the harassment,” Hussain said. “They started harassing local businesses that were working with us, harassing our workers, calling them traitors. Nick Tenkoni [the Ukip leader] is on the site.”
Hussain and Zeelani said many of the protesters traveled from outside the borough. “It took us by surprise because we never knew the local area would be like this,” Hussain said. “I can’t believe the natives are like that.”
Many in the community are supporting SLIC, planning interfaith events and school visits after its official July opening. One of these supporters was United Against Fascism and Stand Up To Racism campaigner Paul Jenkins, 58, a borough resident for more than 30 years. Jenkins participated in a monthly protest against the right at the SLIC site; He said the plan to open for Ramadan was creating a “wonderful feeling for the community”.
“The response from local people who continue to stand up to the racists is really encouraging,” Jenkins said. “They wanted to claim to speak for all indigenous people. Our solidarity events completely shattered that idea. Any further protests from the right will continue to be opposed.”
Jeelani agrees and looks forward to praying at the mosque despite the possibility of protests. “It’s a great achievement,” he says. “This year, we won’t [have to] Rent a community center. We start praying in our new mosque.
