On 10 May 2009 I was privileged to represent IofC at an extraordinary occasion. Twelve hundred Muslims from all communities and from all parts of Britain gathered in Birmingham for the launch of The MINAB – The Mosques and Imam’s National Advisory Board.
The MINAB aims to help modernise and open up Britain’s 1500 Muslim institutions by facilitating good governance in mosques and improving the standards of services provided through a system of self-regulation. On May 10th a 50-member board was democratically elected to run the organisation, including 10 women and 10 from the Shia communities. Already it represents over half the mosques in Britain.
The launch is the culmination of almost 3 years’ work by a number of leading British Muslims, including Judge Kurshid Drabu, who made a hard-hitting opening speech, enphasising that the MINAB is a community-based organisation independently run by its own elected Board, not dependent on anyone else.
The welcome that I experienced was warm and spontaneous, and the atmosphere felt both purposeful and united. And it was confident enough to be widely inclusive. At one point I noticed a man in a skull-cap sitting a few seats away from me. It was Phil Rosenberg, who I first met at a Faith in Leadership course in 2008, representing the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The MINAB’s website headlined the event “Making Muslim Disunity History”.
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