Believing in the importance of cleanness and protecting environment in Islam, members of a West Midlands mosque have launched a new campaign to clean up their city, collecting tens of rubbish bags from the streets of Foleshill.
The campaign started after elderly members of Coventry’s Masjid Zeenat ul Isla reported seeing piles of rubbish on their walks to the mosque.
The area’s litter problem has worsened dramatically since the Coventry bin driver strikes, which are taking place five days a week until March.
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Deciding to take things in their own hands, local community group Rising Stars teamed up with the mosque, and local councilors, to give the streets a much needed clean.
“A lot of the properties on that stretch don’t have front gardens, so the bins over spilling are a result of the bin men not coming around, so it was made worse, the level of mess, by the bin strike” Ayaz Maqsood, who runs youth community group Rising Stars, told CoventryLive.
JazakAllah to all those that took part and Insha’Allah we will be arranging more clean ups soon. Keep an eye out for future events.
We want to thank our community for their ongoing support. pic.twitter.com/YgcJ5TD8r7
— MasjidZeenatul Islam (@MasjidCov) January 29, 2022
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Great Effort
Masjid Zeenat ul Islam sits on the corner of Cambridge Street and Stoney Stanton Road, and is very popular.
“A lot of the older mosque goers were walking through rubbish, it is unsightly, it is not just about the mosque it is the local streets” Maqsood said.
“It was brilliant, the local residents and the shopkeepers, curious to what we were doing, and when we explained, they thanked us for it, a lot of the time, they were prompted to clear their own gardens after seeing us.
“The comments from the shop keepers were really nice as well, they were saying it is really welcome, the streets are getting really filthy, it is nice to be doing something, another comment we got was ‘you should have told us about it we would have joined in’,” Maqsood added.
This is not the first instance of community activism in response to the ongoing bin driver strikes.
A Muslim group called “Bearded Broz” took on the task of cleaning up the streets earlier in Birmingham.
In Aberdeen, an Islamic charity successfully turned a derelict area into a modern football center last May to provide improved facilities for athletes across the region.