On Saturday 3rd December 2022, we hosted our first ever conference.
It began with a lovely recitation of some verses of Surah Maryam by brother Mohammed Ali, which spoke about the birth of Jesus.
This was followed by a recitation of some poetry by Dr Sarfaraz Shah from his book, explaining the context of its revelation and the story of the emigration of the Muslims to Abyssinia as well as their interaction with the Christian King.
We had a number of distinguished guest speakers including Dr Chris Hewer, Reverend Ray Gaston, Shaykh Arif Abdulhussein and Kash “the Flash” Gill – each of them delivered incredibly insightful and inspiring talks. These can all be found on our YouTube channel.
This was also the official launch of the Middle Community’s first book, entitled “The Messenger of Mercy: A Call in Makkah”. We managed to sell many copies of it on the day, as well as our branded hoodies and T shirts. The proceeds of all of this will go towards furrhering the charitable aims of the Middle Community.
A meal and refreshments were provided at the event, which were paid for in a private capacity by the trustees of the Middle Community from their own personal funds.
One of the main aims of the event was to try to establish greater links between different communities through the example of Jesus. We feel we achieved this as everyone went home with smiles on their faces and there were many networking opportunities. Even though, our event officially finished at 3pm, several people chose to stay with us as late as 7.30pm to discuss ideas they had, just because they found it such a great atmosphere.