After Darren Osborne’s attack, Finsbury Park’s ‘Visit My Mosque Day’ is more important than ever before

The recent indictment of Darren Osborne brings back the shock of the event, where he set upon his deranged mission to plough a van through a crowd of Muslim worshippers one summer’s night last Ramadan. A nation already in mourning after the London Bridge, Westminster and Manchester attacks, the Finsbury Park tragedy cemented 2017 as the year we all bore the wounds set upon us by extremists.

Yet as someone who lived in Finsbury Park at the time, I’m also reminded of the uniquely resilient spirit of the community living around the site of that attack. Among one the most diverse communities in London, the tragedy saw an immediate outpouring of solidarity and love from people of all faiths and none, as they consoled one another around the mosque, demonstrating resilience against the hate and division the attacker sought to breed.

It’s this same spirit of resilience and refusal to let hate-mongers dictate the way we see each other that motivates Visit My Mosque Day. While all members of society are free to visit their local mosque throughout the year, Visit My Mosque Day is an active response from Muslim communities to the fact that 90 per cent of people in Britain have yet to see the inside of a mosque. For people like Mohammed Kozbar, Chairman of Finsbury Park mosque, this is a worrying sign of disengagement that can be narrowed by Visit My Mosque Day and build much needed bridges.

Those at Finsbury Park mosque know the importance of such activities all too well. Ever since the new management took over in 2005 they’ve been organising mosque open days regularly for the local community in the spirit of openness and relationship building, before joining the Visit My Mosque Day initiative organised by the Muslim Council of Britain four years ago.

This year’s Visit My Mosque Day, held this Sunday 18 February, comes at a particularly sensitive time, being the first one since the attack last year. For the mosque this is an important opportunity to build upon the spirit of local solidarity and show that Finsbury Park mosque is more than just a mosque, but, as Mr Kozbar says, a community centre open to people of all faiths and none.

The event at Finsbury Park this year will consist of a tour of the mosque, exhibitions about Islam, face painting and henna for children, and stalls from the police, local council and Arsenal FC – as well the chance for a tea and chat. Importantly though, a special exhibition will look back at the Finsbury Park attack itself and commemorate the expressions of solidarity the mosque received from across the diversity of local faith groups and schools.

For over ten years now, Finsbury Park and its mosque have been demonstrating how opening our doors to each other allows for stronger communities capable of the type of resilience and solidarity we saw last year, in the face of brutal terror. As over 200 other mosques around the country partake in Visit My Mosque Day too, this Sunday sees an important opportunity to resist the vile acts of those like Darren Osborne and Salman Obedi that wished to drive a wedge between us, and instead strengthen communities across the UK over tea and chats.

Avaes Mohammad is a teacher, poet and playwright. He previously worked for independent thinktank British Future