Ahead of this year’s Visit My Mosque Day, volunteers from over 250 mosques across the UK have started supporting the Great British Spring Clean campaign. Mosques from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland took part in street clean ups on February 24.
This year’s campaign, in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy, launched on February 24 with a street clean at the London Muslim Centre that saw volunteers both young and old, Muslim and otherwise, don gloves, litter pickers and high-vis jackets.
The launch came as Muslims around the country were to welcome in their neighbours on Visit My Mosque day on 3 March, to learn more about each other’s lives and in particular our common values for the care of the environment and respecting mother nature.
Fahmida and Billy, volunteers participating in street clean, said that they “couldn’t believe how fun and easy it was to do the street clean”. An estimated 25 million tonnes of litter is dropped annually in Britain, costing the UK taxpayer over £1 billion a year.
Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, speaking at the event said, “It’s incredible to see volunteers here today, giving up their Sunday morning to make a difference to their local environment. Whatever faith or background you come from, care and cleanliness for our local environment is a unifying force that brings communities together.
He continued, “We are pleased to be supporting Keep Britain Tidy in their Great British Spring Clean campaign this spring and we hope Visit My Mosque going green will spark conversations across the country on what more faith-based and other community groups can be doing to support local environmental causes”.
Keep Britain Tidy Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton speaking at the event said , “Litter makes us feel bad about where we live.” She highlighted the shocking fact that “80% of litter found in the sea comes from our streets” and spoke about the importance of creating more awareness about keeping our streets clean.
Keep Britain Tidy aims to inspire half a million people to join forces to collect and safely dispose of litter from streets, parks and beaches, through their annual Great British Spring Clean campaign. Mosques are joining the campaign this year and are starting early by raising awareness about the environment at this year’s #VisitMyMosque day on 3rd March.
Visit My Mosque is a national initiative facilitated by the Muslim Council of Britain, the country’s largest Muslim umbrella body with over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations.
This year’s Visit My Mosque is supported by British Muslim-led charities Penny Appeal and Muslim Aid, as well as the grant-making charity the Aziz Foundation.