Kirkcaldy Central Mosque nearing completion

The impressive building, which was started in 2012, has been constructed purely with funds raised by members of the mosque themselves.

It is completely custom built and stands two storeys high with multiple rooms for worship and learning.

The mosque will include two separate halls for worship, a crèche for young children, multiple classrooms for learning, chill out areas, several ablution rooms, commercial kitchen, disabled access with an interior elevator and facilities for funeral arrangements.

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Mohammed Khalid, project manager, has been working on the build since the very start of the project, he said: “To begin with I was just volunteering my time to help build the mosque.

“I was here when we first started the foundations in 2012, and have been working here part time in my spare time just helping out.

“Since 2016 I have been here full-time, but it is hard to really get going as we raise the funds, do some work, raise more funds, and then do more work.

“We are doing fine now with the build, but I had a triple bypass in June last year and we have fallen back with the work again, I think that we are about six months behind.”

Mohammed explains that the build has been a labour of love but the time that it has taken to construct has also been frustrating.

“It has been a pleasure to build, but I can’t wait to get it finished.

“All the plaster work and all the woodwork has been done by myself and a couple of other joiners, it has been very time consuming.

“All the work here has been done by hand.”

The mosque is also celebrating as Imam Mansoor Mahmood has been nominated for the Religious Advocate of the Year category in the 2020 British Muslim Awards.

Imam Mansoor has beaten hundreds of other nominees to be short listed as a finalist for the eighth British Muslim Awards.

The award was created to recognise a wide range of achievements from inspiring individuals from the British Muslim community.

This includes those who have made a positive impact on business, charity, sport, arts, culture, religious advocacy, education and medicine.

The awards will be held on Wednesday, January 31 in the Mercure Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester, where some of the most accomplished and influential Muslims in Britain will gather for a night to celebrate their success.

Imam Mansoor was shocked to be nominated as he had no idea that his name had been put forward by members of his congregation, He said: “I first found out that I had been nominated when I went onto Facebook last week and saw that I had been tagged in a post.

“I went to the page that I had been tagged on and it was then that I had realised that I had been nominated with six other people for religious advocate of the year.

“It is such a surprise to be nominated because Kirkcaldy is a relativity small town and the awards are UK wide, there are so many other bigger mosques in much larger towns and cities.

“You would think that an Imam with a mosque in a city with more than a few thousand people who attend would be nominated before me.”

Imam Mansoor said it was a priviledge to be nominated for the award.

“It is a great honour to have been nominated, and to be recognised for the work I am doing in Kirkcaldy.

“This means to me that the community are happy with me and are happy with some of the changes I am making.

“A few elders sometimes say that I am making too many changes, but with this award nomination means that the majority of people are happy with the way that I’m doing things and they want recognition for that.”

Imam Mansoor, who is 31, wants to establish a trend of change within the Muslim community as more Imams are now younger.

“Now there are more younger Imams that are coming into the faith industry, as some people call it.

“You may not get this in other religions, young people who are training as ministers, but in the Muslim communities there are quite a few seminaries down south and there are dozens of young people graduating every year,

“These young people will be taking over from the Imams that came here from Pakistan 30 or 40 years ago who are still in there positions at the moment.

“I am so grateful for my position here in Kirkcaldy, there is such a good sense of community spirit and it makes me happy to know that I have everyone’s support.”