Positive Stories

A page of Positive Muslim Stories.

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2018 : Ali Akbar Welfare Trust donate to Nottingham Hospitals Charity
Via Nottingham Hospitals Charity Facebook page: "Mr Ali Asghar and The Ali Akbar Welfare Trust have been ongoing fundraisers for Nottingham Hospitals Charity since 2012. The Trust has raised an incredible £3, 802.24 for all different areas of the hospitals, including the Children’s Hospital Big Appeal, Teenage Cancer Ward and The ENT Gardens Appeal. The money is raised through multiple football tournaments, in memory of Ali’s son Ali Akbar, who was treated at the City Hospital's Hogarth Ward between January and 22nd September 2013..."

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2017 : Muslim school pupils deliver presents to local Hospital
Asian Image:
"Pupils from a Muslim boys' school puts smiles on the faces of patients as they delivered Christmas gifts. A group of Year 10 pupils from Tauheedul Islam Boys’ High School (TIBHS) made visits to children’s wards and older people’s wards at Blackburn Royal Hospital.The pupils, accompanied by TIBHS staff and representatives of Brookhouse Development Group, took gifts of toys and games to boys and girls staying on children’s wards, and gifts of blankets, toiletries and treats to older people..."

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2017 : The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims
Very interested to read about this new group and their first publication "A Very Merry Muslim Christmas" which looks at the contribution of Muslim charities in helping people in the UK.

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2017 :Taxi drivers raise thousands for children's ward at Queen's Medical Centres
Nottingham Post reports on how Notts Hackney Cabbies raised £2,750 to support Nottingham Children's Hospital "The Big Appeal" campaign which has raised £700,000 towards a 2021 target of £4million which will be spent on highly specialised diagnostic equipment that can accurately identifies illness and disease earlier.

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Dec 2016:Lancashire mosques donate £13,600 to assist stroke patients
Article here
"Four mosques and a Lancashire charity have donated £13,600 to assist stroke patients at Royal Blackburn and Pendle Community hospitals. The donations..will provide eight specialist chairs for patients...Fundraising for the eight stroke chairs was the idea of Imam Fazal Hassan from the hospital chaplaincy department, working in partnership with Blackburn community organisations."

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Dec2016: Nigerian Muslim provides 50 Christian widows with food.
Article here
"A Nigerian Muslim woman has given more than 50 Christian widows the gift of food this Christmas....Hajiya Ramatu Tijjani donated bags of rice to women at the Christ Evangelical Church Ministry in the state of Kaduna.Tijjani, who has been described as a peace ambassador, said she was inspired by the kindness of the church's Pastor Yohanna Buru who gives out food and water to refugees."

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London Muslims tonnes of food for homeless at Christmas
Article here
"Muslims have donated 10 tonnes of food to feed the homeless across London at Christmas, religious and charity leaders said...Hundreds of Muslims flocked to the East London Mosque on Friday in a drive to feed London's homeless during the festive period...More than 90 per cent of the food, which will be given to homeless charity Crisis, will go to non-Muslims, with Christian Reverend Gary Bradley describing the drive as “all faiths working together for a common humanity.” "

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Muslims raise money for Wakefield Hospice
"As part of our Love thy Neighbour campaign, Penny Appeal are delighted to have presented a donation of £2,000 to Wakefield Hospice to help fund a new cooking unit and support ongoing hospice costs. The Love Thy Neighbour appeal helps locally here in the UK supporting communities who need help at home."

Penny Appeal donating £2,000 to Wakefield Hospice

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Muslims in Blackburn raise money for a local Hospice
Article here

"The Masjide Noorul Islam raised £3,000 of much needed funds for the East Lancashire Hospice. he donation will go towards community group Connect UK’s efforts to raise funds for the Hospice."

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Jan 2016 : Muslims in Newham raise £10k to help flood victims in York
Article here

"Collections at Friday prayers in nine east London mosques, including six in Newham, resulted in a staggering £10,000 raised and more than 100 volunteers signing up to provide assistance for the massive clean-up operation"

"Last Saturday (9 January) 30 volunteers left London at 5am to clean up local parks and power-washing the silt off balconies at sheltered accommodation schemes. The group also distributed 500 meals to flood-affected residents and a local homeless project.A further 60 volunteers...are expected to make the journey north again this weekend to present the £10,000 cheque to the York Disaster Appeal and provide further assistance to the city."
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Jan 2016 : Muslim group in Preston invite EDL to have a talk and some food instead of marching
Article here, but the title pretty much says it all.

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Dec 2015 : Karimia and YMCA help homeless at Christmas
Karimia Institute in Nottingham have teamed up with Nottingham YMCA to provide a Christmas meal and present to some of Nottinghams homeless people. All round good-egg Mazher Hussein was at YMCA on the 25th to help them with the event.

Karimia Institute worked with Nottingham YMCA
 to provide these Christmas meals and presents for some
 of the homeless in Nottingham


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Dec 2015 : The Himmah Foodbank has been supplying Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership with foodparcels
At the time of writing Himmah are supplying about 20 foodpacks per week to the awesome "Tasty Tuesday" project run by the Dunkirk and Lenton partnership at Thomas Helwys Baptist Church, Lenton.

According to the partnership website, Tasty Tuesdays "...is a weekly free meal for everyone and has been running since summer 2014. It aims to bring people together across the different communities. For people in financial difficulties it offers a filling, nutritious, meal, food parcels, and signposting to support agencies and services. For people experiencing loneliness or social isolation it can provide company, the chance to make friends, and a weekly social event to look forward to, in a welcoming and relaxed environment."

Himmah Foodpacks at Tasty Tuesdays

Fi Corbett from the Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership Forum with Himmah Foodpacks


You can read more about the Himmah Foodbank here

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Dec 2015 : Helping an elderly neighbour at Christmas
Saw this post from a Muslim FB friend and felt it was important to share :

"2 days ago, hubby went to check up on the elderly couple living next door. He asked them how they will celebrate xmas. They sounded really upset as they said, they are too old to go out now and their only son is going away for xmas with his fam. Hubby was really upset when he came home and told me. Today, he took a a box of chocolates, a xmas card, plate of pilow rice and sweet dish (kheer) for them and sat with them for a good 10/15 min and came back and said, they were so excited today as their son and family changed plans and decided to come and spend xmas with their mum and dad instead. He said, they were ecstatic!! Sat and joked with hubby and were just so glad to have him around. Quite frankly, don't know who was more excited and at peace, our neighbours Charlie and Selby or My hubby. Wherever you are or however busy you are, take time out for your neighbours , especially your elderly neighbours as a few min of your time really does make a huge difference to them!!"

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Preston Mosques raise over £38,000 for local hospital
Article here
In just over six weeks, eight Preston mosques managed to raise over £38,000 for the Rosemere Cancer Foundation's project to purchase state-of-the-art lung cancer diagnosis equipment for the Royal Preston Hospital. The donation included £5,000 donated by madrassah children and £8,000 from women in the community. The money was collected at Masjid-e-Falah, Jamea Masjid, Quwwat Islam, Masjid Shuhada Deepdale, Masjid-E-Saliheen, Masjid e Salaam, Madina Masjid and Masjid-e-Quba.

Iqbal Adam from the Preston Muslim Society commented that “The Imams played a very huge part in the fundraising effort by announcing the appeal at Friday prayers. We would like to thank everyone who donated." and that “We are part of the community and we felt it was important for mosques to take a lead in this."

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Luton "Feed your Neighbour" Campaign
BFTF was chuffed to hear that the Luton Central Mosque has undertaken a "Feed Your Neighbour" campaign to support local people in dire economic need.

The campaign was run by volunteers at the mosque who, together with help from the Imam, encouraged the congregation to donate am impressive amount of tinned and other non-perishable food.

Food collected by the good people of Luton Central Mosque

This was then given to the Luton Foodbank, a coalition of some 50 local organisations and many more volunteers committed to ensuring no-one goes hungry in Luton. And, make no mistake, people DO go hungry in Luton, often through no fault of their own. Here are two examples from the Luton Foodbank website :
"Anne-Marie and Danny were hit by benefits delays at the same time as Danny was off work with flu. With no sick pay finances got tight very quickly and they were faced with eviction as well as having no money for food. They resorted to borrowing a tin of soup from their neighbours to stop little Tia going hungry until they heard about the Foodbank. ‘I don’t know what we would have done next if it wasn’t for the foodbank’, says Danny."

"Ryan regularly skipped school because he could not face the embarrassment of having no money for lunch. On visiting his home to deliver a foodbank parcel, the school’s liaison officer discovered there was no food, except a little oats and milk. The mother’s purse was empty. The mother of two explained that her husband had left her and that the benefits were in his name. He had not been contributing towards child care since leaving and when she informed the Benefits Agency all benefits were stopped, including child benefit, because of her ‘change in circumstances’. The support worker estimated that it would take two to four months for the benefits to be re-assessed. "

Donated Food being given to the Luton Foodbank
 

Thr food was given to the Luton Foodbank at the Town Hall. Amongst other speakers, the Imam of the Luton Central Mosque thanked the volunteers for undertakng this action, adding people should be wary of being well-fed while their "neighbour to the side is hungry"

This is not the first time the Muslim community in Luton has acted to provide help for the most vulnerable in their town. The "Discover Islam" information centre in the town centre has been a designated drop-off point for the Luton Foodbank since 2012 and has donated a significant amount of food in its own right.

Nor is it the only issue on which the Muslim community in Luton has acted for the benefit of others, in 2010 the Medina Mosque became only the second Fairtrade mosque in the UK.

Nor is this kind of thing unique to Luton. Muslim organisations are helping foodbanks in Birmingham, Nelson, Blackburn, Harrow, Nottingham and , no doubt, many other locations.

It's all good stuff, and really needs to be publicised widely - both as a counter to the arguemnt of the far right that Muslims do not help wider society and also as an encouragement to the younger Muslim population to help and volunteer for this kind of social action.

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Liberties
Inspirational letter from "Fozia Wani" in the Luton Herald and Post on Jul 11th 2013, responding to a previous letter asking the liberties enjoyed by Muslim women. In the letter, Fozia comments on how she had been encouraged by her parents to become a lecturer at the age of 20, living 200miles away from home. Fozia adds that her grandmothers sister was sufficiently empowered to leave her husband the day after she was married, how her grandmother and mother were university graduates, how her mothers sisters all work and some are breadwinners in their hourseholds, how one sister used to be a BBC broadcaster, another is a food writer and the third a teacher - and how her father taught her to be fearless and treated her the same as her brothers.

Wow.

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Aberdeen church opens doors to Muslims
Article here
"A Scottish reverend has invited Muslims to pray alongside Christians in an Aberdeen church because the nearby mosque is so small that some worshippers were forced to pray outside...The rector of St John's church, Rev Isaac Poobalan, has made parts of the building available to the congregation of the mosque. Up to 100 Muslims now pray in the main chapel five times every Friday."

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Jeweller Ashraf Ahmed replaces brides stolen ring
Article here
"Caroline Granshaw was left “heartbroken” when a callous thief swiped her handbag containing the sapphire and diamond-encrusted platinum band from a secluded church at her nuptials in June. Despite a £1,000 reward the stolen ring has still not been tracked down, but jeweller Ashraf Ahmed was so moved by the couple’s plight he has given them an identical ring."

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Oct2014:Five year old British boy becomes youngest ever qualified computer specialist
Article here

"... Ayan Qureshi last month became the youngest-ever certified Microsoft Computer Specialist. Ayan was five when he took the exam at Birmingham University, toppling Pakistani Mehroz Yawar who passed the exam at the practically ancient age of six and a half."

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Sep2014:Wollaton Mums and Tots raise £456 for MacMillan Cancer Support
Latest of a number of charity fundraisers by the group....

Cakes on sale at Wollaton Mums and Tots
fundraiser for MacMillan


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Muslims in Cardiff donate and prepare meals for local homeless people
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-28100303
Muslims in Cardiff are working together in a project called "We Feed" to provide fresh, hot meals to homeless people in the city. Zishan Hassan, owner of one of the restaurants who provide the food comments that "It feeds into what we believe because it's a duty, as Muslims, to give to the poor and the needy".

Mohammed Yacoub is co-ordinating the food distribution in the project "We Feed" a joint venture between Muslim businesses (ranging from grocery stores to fast food outlets) and volunteers across Cardiff. The project provides food for those who need it most, irrespective of faith or nationality. All the food if taken to a homeless hostel in the city centre, where it is given out to those who need it.

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Muslim kids in Blackburn raise £1000 for kidney machine campaign.
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/11277727.1_000_thanks_to_school___s_charity_champs/?ref=la
The lovely children at the Olive Primary School in Blackburn have raised a remarkable £1000 to support the Blackburn and Darwen Kidney Care Appeal, which is currently being supported as the Mayors Charity. The School has a Muslim character and the Head, Julie Bradley, commented that "Once again, our children have demonstated a their commitment to excellence and community service, and campaigned hard for local causes". See also this article on the record breaking amount that the Mayors Charity has raised.

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The Deen Riders are riding to Cornwall in June 2014 to fundraise for Caudwell Children", a national charity who "provide family support services, equipment, treatment and therapies for disabled children and their families across the UK"

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Hero bus driver rushes pregnant woman to hospital after she waited over an hour for an ambulance which failed to arrive
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hero-bus-driver-rushes-pregnant-woman-to-hospital-after-she-waited-over-an-hour-for-an-ambulance-which-failed-to-arrive-9014718.html
Sajjad Shariff, 41, was flagged down by heavily pregnant driving Fatim Faye who could not wait any longer for an ambulance. After calling in a "Code Red", he looked after Faye until he felt he could wait no longer and took her in the bus to the local maternity unit.

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Muslim orgs buy cooker for local Salvation Army branch
http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/news/clements_road_salvation_army_says_prayers_were_answered_after_new_cooker_was_installed_1_3202676
A Salvation Army night shelter in Ilford was facing a difficult Chrismas when it's cooker broke down just before the festive season...until the local federation of Muslim organisations stepped up and raised funds to buy a replacement!

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Mosque "Mum and Tot" group raises over £1000 for Save The Children:
http://bftfblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/mosque-raises-over-1000-for-save.html
"Reflecting on the event, Saema commented that "it gives me an incalculable amounts of satisfaction to see the community coming together for a good cause. It really is amazing what we can achieve when we come together""

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Volunteers at a London Mosque train as archaeologists to investigate site of mosque extension:
http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/7298
Expensive archaeological work was a condition of expansion for the Bait-ul-Aziz Islamic Cultural Centre in London. As a means of reducing costs, and to improve engagement with wider society, the mosque formed a partnership with PreConstructionArchaeology in which a number of volunteers from the mosque agreed to be trained in dig techniques and to help with the archaeological excavations. So far items ranging from 18th century cattle skeltons to Roman era burials. The mosques hopes to use this opportunity to host an open day offering local residents to learn more about the mosque and the dig. Check out their blog here:
http://preconstruct.wordpress.com/journal-account/

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Muslims in Bradford fund roof repairs of Synagogue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/19/bradford-synagogue-muslims_n_2908254.html
Chance encounters started a chain of events which culminated in local businessman Kahlid Pervaiz donating £2,000 to fix leaks in the synagogues roof, and a number of local mosques supporting funding applications to further renovate the building.

Zulfi Karim, the secretary of the Bradford Council of Mosques comments that "I was so impressed by the architecture and the history of the synagogue, we couldn't let this go to waste," adding in another article that, in terms of building tolerance in the Muslim community "I really, really deeply, strongly feel that the way forward is interfaith dialogue – perhaps through food, perhaps through visiting a synagogue or other places of worship

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Manchester Mosque feed hundreds of needy local people at Christmas:
http://mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/171213897-curry-christmas-old-trafford-mosque-offers-alternative-turkey-dinner-those-living-
According to the report, the The Faizan-e-Islam mosque undertakes an annual Christmas effort to provide meals for local people who are unable to eat at home. One of the volunteers, Shabir Abdul, commented that "We talked about how we could reach out to help them and felt that offering meals was a great way to give people the chance to have a great curry and also to enjoy a bit of conversation – everyone will be welcome.”

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Muslim Cultural Centre Wollaton raises over £500 for MacMillan :
http://bftfblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/mosque-raises-over-500-for-macmillan-in.html

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Luton Central Mosque donates to Luton Foodbank:
http://bftfblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/luton-central-mosque-donates-to-luton.html

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The "Deen Riders" visit Nottingham on a trip to raise funds to help civilians in Syria:
http://bftfblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-deen-riders-visit-nottingham.html


The Deen Riders in Nottingham in 2013

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Did the Ottomans give food aid during the Irish Potato Famine?
http://bftfblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/did-ottomans-give-food-aid-during-irish.html

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Muslim WW2 SOE operative Noor Inayat Khan
http://bftfblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/noor-inayat-khan.html

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Report on Jubilee Celebration by Himmah, showing how Muslims can find common ground with wider society:
http://bftfblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/himmah-jubilee-celebration-at-asda.html

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Report on Family Festival by Himmah:
http://bftfblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/himmah-family-festival-may2012.html

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Report on Scouts visit to the Theatre Royal:
http://bftfblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/tour-of-theatre-royal-nottingham.html

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Report on Scouts visit to a Syangogue
http://bftfblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/scouts-visit-to-notts-jewish.html

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Interview with Yaseen - showing how Muslims can work to help the communities around them:
http://bftfblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-yaseen-and-emmanuel-house.html

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Report on how Muslims in 1905 celebrated Christmas and kept good relations with their neighbours:
http://bftfblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/british-muslim-christmas-in-1905.html

Took the message to the media.
Because they are the ones who need to hear it


A happy Union Jack, yesterday