About
Our history
A former magistrates’ court on Anchorage Road, bought in 2012 by the people who now pray in it.
For years the Muslims of Sutton Coldfield had nowhere of their own. They hired halls for the night prayers of Ramadan and for Eid, and gave the keys back afterwards.
Borrowed halls
The Muslim community in Sutton Coldfield grew through the 1990s. With no building of its own, it hired rooms around the town for the night prayers of Ramadan and for Eid.
By 2005 the association had started looking for somewhere permanent.
The courthouse
In 2012 the magistrates’ court on Anchorage Road came up for sale, with the court office moving to Birmingham.
It stood between the police station and the fire station. Large rooms upstairs and down, parking already on site, and a planning class that allowed public gatherings, which is the permission a masjid needs.
Paid for in six weeks
The money came from the community in six weeks, backed by Dr Hany El Banna of Islamic Relief and Imam Ajmal Masroor.
Some of it arrived as interest-free loans rather than gifts. Every one was paid back within two years.
Since June 2012
The sale completed in June 2012 and the doors opened for daily prayers.
Since then the masjid has added a maktab teaching children the Qur’an, marriages and funerals, scouts and a youth group, room hire and school visits.