Nine facts about England’s new stunning multi-million-dollar mosque

Abu Huraira Mosque in Beeston, Leeds, is without a doubt among the most stunning in all of England.

Over the last 10 years, the local Kashmir Muslim community has saved up and raised funds to build the mosque, which opened this week. Here are nine other facts about the beautiful new mosque.

1. The name of the mosque, Abu Huraira, means “father of a kitten” in Arabic. It is also the name of a famous companion of the Prophet Muhammad, Abd al-Rahman Ibn Sakhr, whose love of cats was well-known. Abu Huraira was one of the most prolific narrators of the hadith (prophetic traditions); he narrated over 5,000 of them.

1. In June this year, the old site of the Abu Huraira Mosque and a Sikh gurdwara nearby were both attacked by an arsonist in the early hours. The police have labelled this a hate crime.

1. Locally, the Abu Huraira Mosque was known as the “Hardy Street” Mosque because it used to be run out of a former cooperative rice mill on Hardy Street in Beeston before the building of the new premises.

1. The Abu Huraira Mosque’s new building combines pseudo-Moghul features with modern architectural ones. Two towering minarets with green domed cupolas flank a modest central dome (also green) that rests on the red brickwork building. Inside, a stunning chandelier hangs from the central dome over a lush azure-coloured carpet of geometric patterns.

1. The mosque is the realisation of a 34-year-old dream by one of Britain’s only Muslim associations founded by Kashmiris. The Kashmir Muslim Welfare Association was set up on July 30, 1984 by local Beeston elders who originally hailed from the Kashmir region, which stretches across parts of India and Pakistan.

1. The mosque can accommodate 1,600 worshippers and boasts a mortuary facility, a library, a kitchen and several classrooms for the mosque’s madrasah.

1. Students from the Abu Huraira Mosque’s madrasah recently helped with the maintenance of the Yorkshire Dales, one of Britain’s most popular national parks, where they installed irrigation piping underneath footpaths trodden by thousands of visitors a year.

1. The grand opening last Sunday saw members of the community, local press and dignitaries attend a tour and a shared meal.

1. The mosque took six years to build and was supposed to cost $4 million, but the actual cost ended up being $2.9 million.

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