Britain’s First Mosque
Syed Neaz Ahmad: Built in 1889, the Shahjehan Mosque is a symbol of Muslim history in Britain.
A prison, a lunatic asylum and a crematorium hardly provide an deal setting for a sacred institution, but the first mosque to be built in Britain in October 1889 was sited against such a background. The actual first mosque was in a converted building in Liverpool.
However, the Shahjehan Mosque in the County of Surrey assumed larger than life proportions in matters of public interest and became a landmark. As a matter of fact, the little known sleepy town of Woking, because of the mosque, became a
priority destination for visiting dignitaries and the focus of Islam in England.
The story of the Shahjehan Mosque is the history of the site and the wanderings of a Budapest Linguist Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm...