As part of their third year undergraduate module on Islam, students visited Preston to hear first hand what life was like for a Muslim in the UK in the 21st century. In the morning the trainees visited Fulwood Academy where they were able to interview a number of young Muslim students. They found the youngsters to have widely varying ideas of what it meant to be a Muslim, from the very observant to those who seemed ready to challenge.
After a quick lunch we visited the Medina Mosque in the afternoon. As well as a tour of the facilities and the opportunity to observe the zuhr congregational prayers students were given a very thorough presentation of Islam as a deen by Waqaus Ali of Thinkbrite Services. Waqaus talked of how faith could be thought of as having three levels: Islam, Iman and Ishan. He also spoke about historical and contemporary issues surrounding Islam.
“it has brought the religion of Islam out of the textbook and into real life and society that we can now transfer into the classroom”
Here are a selection of photographs taken during the fieldtrip:
Islam in Preston, a set on Flickr.