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Anna Regina remembers stalwart, Brother Abdool
Anna Regina has lost a community leader, a neighbour and a friend with the passing of Mr. Abdool Alli, known to many as Brother Abdool.
Alli, 87, who was President of the Wightman Road Mosque in London, died last week Sunday at his home in London. His granddaughter, Farina Nagy, in a post on https://www.justgiving.com said that her grandfather was diagnosed with liver cancer in February of this year and had very little time left to live.
Alli migrated from Guyana to England in 1959 when he began his remarkable mission by working on community relations within the Guyanese community. Soon after, he broadened his activities to the community at large. The sheer number and variety of organisations to which he contributed and the length of his service are testimony to the importance of that mission.
Abdool Alli
It is, however, though his work with the Islamic Cultural Society that he most distinguished himself. Before he got to work, there were few mosques and fewer opportunities for the small number of Muslims from Guyana to worship together. Brother Alli changed all that.
At first, his home served as the venue for small groups wishing to observe Friday prayers. So successful was he in being a host to these, however, that the hire of a community hall soon became necessary. Then, in the early 1980s he led a fundraising campaign, which ultimately raised over £2.5 million and succeeded at first in purchasing the community centre in Wightman Road Haringey, and then in erecting Haringey’s first purpose-built mosque – a building which has served also as the first Islamic Cultural Centre in the United Kingdom. The original mosque was completed in 2001.
The mosque rapidly became the preferred place of worship for many persons, coming from well beyond Mr. Alli’s own Guyanese community. This led, in 2014, to the opening of a large extension to the original building, which in keeping with Mr. Alli’s outward-looking ethos, contains not only premises for religious observance, but various other rooms where groups doing good within the wider community are welcome to meet.
Such is the consideration for others, that some of the entrances have been designed so that visitors to these facilities can get to them without even having to remove their shoes. The inclusivity of the Mosque is also borne out by the prominence, which women have had in its administration. When the new extension was opened, British Member of Parliament, Mr. David Lammy, exclaimed, “You (Alli) have created a palace!” At the time, Mr. Alli was a mere 83 years old.
Since then, he involved himself in plans to provide residential care services for elderly members of the Muslim faith, and to improve the quality of funeral services.
To those in the wider community, his kindly and unassuming manner, his approachability and his wisdom, informed by his many years of service, gave rise to great esteem. And he was always available, whether at his office in the mosque where he was often the first port of call for people in need, or at public meetings in times of crisis.
As recently as November 2017, he organized an open house for UK Parliament Week to enable elected representatives to meet the public. As support was being garnered for him to receive an honour, the enthusiasm was universal. British MP, Lynne Featherstone, wrote enthusiastically in support as did her successor, Ms. Catherine West MP.
The latter wrote, “At a time when we are seeing hate crime, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on the rise in our society, Mr. Alli is a diligent advocate for countering such hate, bringing people, whatever their colour or creed together.” He had the ability, common amongst the great, but rare amongst the rest of us, to make everyone he ever met feel special.
“How rich our community was for his presence, and how richer still it will be for the wonderful institution that he created,” a mourner expressed.
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