The first mosque in the Outer Hebrides will open by summer after an online funding campaign passed its £50,000 funding target within just a few days of being launched.
Just over £55,000 had been raised by yesterday for the mosque in Stornoway, which had already been granted planning permission by Western Isles Council.
Aihtsham Rashid, 39, from Leeds, set up the Just Giving site to help the Muslim community on the Isle of Lewis, whose relatively small numbers were swollen recently by the arrival of six refugee families from Syria.
The mosque’s construction is strongly opposed by some hardline Presbyterians. The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) urged its congregation to pray that “no mosque will ever appear in Stornoway” after the planning decision in August.
Mr Rashid, a builder, said that he had been contacted by the Syrian community asking for his help. He said: “Against all odds and opposition from the Free Church of Scotland they have now been granted permission to build.
“I have been personally requested to go up and help them with the build and planning due to my experience in building mosques.”
Mr Rashid said that construction was likely to take up to four months but he hoped to have secured the fabric of the building within a matter of weeks.
He added: “If we can get it watertight, we have electrics, it’s safe and we are weather proof there is no reason why there cannot be electrical heaters for the first Ramadan [May 15-June 14], to have a prayer here.
“Whether it is the first of Ramadan or the last of Ramadan, the 30th day or the first, inshallah [God willing], my target is to have a Ramadan prayer in here.”
The building, close to Stornoway harbour, was originally a house but has been empty for many years. The small mosque will comprise a prayer room with a meeting room across the hall.
The 2011 census records that as well as 20,452 Christians, there were 61 Muslims, 40 Buddhists, 37 Hindus, three Jews and a Sikh living in the Western Isles – another 97 people were of another religion, 5,014 said they had no religion and 1,979 did not state their religion.
Stornoway has a long established Muslim community.
And last year 18 more Syrian refugees arrived there. The four families bring to six, the number of families resettled in the town.
The council has no more plans to take any more refugees at this stage.
