Police pay special visit to Milton Keynes mosque to learn about its community

Police officers visited one of the city’s mosques over the weekend to learn what it means to the community.

PCSOs Duggan and PCSO Bailey took advantage of a special ‘Visit my Mosque’ day event to call in to the Zainabiya Islamic Centre in Peverel Drive, Bletchley.

They said: “We were lucky enough to be able to listen to members of the centre talk about what the mosque means to them and the community, as well listen to their experiences during their time at the mosque.

“We would like to thank the Zainabiya Islamic Centre for the invitation and for their hospitality.”

The centre is a purpose-built mosque and welcomes all visitors. It participates annually in the “Visit My Mosque Day” and also hosts various group visits including primary schools, secondary schools, colleges, scouts and guides throughout the year.

Run as a charity, its objectives are the propagation and promotion of the spiritual, educational and humanitarian teachings of the Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim faith

A spokesperson said: “The KSI Muslim Communality of Milton Keynes is committed to facilitate as many people as possible to worship at our mosque and to become part of our community. The KSIMC of Milton Keynes also maintains an overview of worship throughout our larger community and makes suggestions to enhance our services by involving other groups within our greater community of Milton Keynes.”

Visits for schools are planned by a qualified teacher and cover aspects of the RE curriculum relating to features of a mosque and beliefs of Muslims.

However, the mosque is happy to accommodate requests of any topic relating to Islam.

To arrange a visit or to invite representatives to your school to host an assembly, you can email[email protected].

The mosque runs a Zainabiya Madressa, which is a Shia Muslim faith Sunday School. This ppened in 1983 and has been teaching students since then.

There is also a Zainabiya Sports Club (ZSC), an independently run community sports club founded in 2016. A range of sports including football, badminton, table tennis, volleyball and netball are played.