{"id":17287,"date":"2016-11-18T16:16:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T16:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/intercardiff\/?p=17287"},"modified":"2016-11-18T16:16:05","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T16:16:05","slug":"just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community","title":{"rendered":"Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>In contemporary British politics, the position and role of Muslim communities in Britain is a very common area of discussion and one which unfortunately has a tendency to turn very ugly. Amanda Morris from the Muslim Council of Wales helps shed some light on what role Cardiff&#8217;s Muslim Community is playing in the wider community in this time of increasing scrutiny for the minority group.<\/h4>\n<p>Cardiff&#8217;s Muslim community is particularly interesting given it&#8217;s comparatively long history next to that of other Muslim communities in the UK. Cardiff has boasted a sizable number of Somali and Yemeni residents since the 1800s, in contrast to many British communities which only began to see the growth of Muslim communities in the post-war 1940s and 1950s.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17316\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17316\" style=\"width: 625px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17316\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Muslim_Community-_Everyday_Life_in_Butetown_Cardiff_Wales_UK_1943_D15318-625x351.jpg\" alt=\"Cardiff Muslims in 1943\" width=\"625\" height=\"351\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17316\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17316\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Muslim_Community-_Everyday_Life_in_Butetown_Cardiff_Wales_UK_1943_D15318-625x351.jpg\" alt=\"Cardiff Muslims in 1943\" width=\"625\" height=\"351\" \/><\/noscript> Cardiff Muslims in 1943<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nGiven it&#8217;s fairly uniquely long history one would assume that the Muslim community in Cardiff would be quite active in wider society, an assumption which is supported by the Muslim Council of Wales&#8217; Administrative Executive Amanda Morris.<br \/>\nWhen asked about various activities the community engages in outside of traditional worship, Morris went on to cite a number initiatives. &#8220;There is a Mosque in Cathays that runs GCSE and A-level tuition classes. Open to all, very low cost, every Saturday morning. Another\u00a0Mosque goes around to various takeaways that are owned by Muslims that worship at that Mosque and those takeaways will donate hot food.&#8221;<br \/>\nOutside of charity she also detailed local initiatives such as the MCW&#8217;s youth leadership program &#8216;I Lead&#8217; and various interfaith activities and voter registration drives.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nRegarding the breadth of enthusiasm for such activities within the Muslim community, she noted that: &#8220;There is a small group of very committed individuals who sort of spearhead each project. It\u00a0couldn\u2019t be done without a wider participation however. There is quite a high turnover of people who come and volunteer, but what we\u2019ve noticed is that it is growing, especially among young people. The older generation are sort of more&#8230;they work they, they have businesses, they don\u2019t necessarily have the time.&#8221;<br \/>\nThere is also an apparent trend that once many of the regular youth volunteers become too old and busy to volunteer, their younger siblings tend to take their place.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nThere are certainly reservations among the community about many Mosque and MCW initiatives. The altruistic approach that does not place emphasis on publicity has led some to criticize the initiatives for not earning the recognition such work deserves. Morris also described: &#8220;a section of people within the community who will say that we should be helping Muslims, not non-Muslims. We can appreciate how they feel but we don\u2019t agree with it.&#8221;<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17392\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17392\" style=\"width: 625px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17392\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Bilal-mosque-625x469.jpg\" alt=\"Cardiff's Bilal Mosque\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17392\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17392\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Bilal-mosque-625x469.jpg\" alt=\"Cardiff's Bilal Mosque\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" \/><\/noscript> Cardiff&#8217;s Bilal Mosque<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nWhen it comes to politics, Morris stated that it tend to lack pull within the Muslim community. &#8220;In terms of party politics I don\u2019t know many Muslims that become active in party politics simply because it is not a terribly honest line of work.&#8221; She went on to state a common concern among Muslims that changing British party lines have a tendency to compromise Islamic beliefs.<br \/>\nThis is not to say that the Muslim community is apathetic towards politics however. &#8220;There are Muslims that get very involved in the political process in other ways, like ensuring everybody is registered to vote and actually vote to make people understand what the parties are actually standing for.&#8221; Morris also noted an increasing interest in the Muslim community for political lobbying on matters such as the government&#8217;s &#8220;Prevent Agenda&#8221; and availability of Halal meat in schools.<br \/>\nWhen asked about the prevailing wisdom that Britain&#8217;s Muslim communities are bucking the trend towards increasing secularization and atheism which the Christian community is seeing, Morris agreed, quoting the Prophet Muhammad: \u201cThe wolf will eat the sheep that is left behind\u201d, what he meant by that if you try to be isolated from other people who are practitioners you will leave the faith&#8221;. &#8220;Islam is a holistic faith that is in every aspect of our life, it not just going to church on Sunday and singing some hymns&#8221;.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nLooking towards the future, Morris expressed confidence that Muslim engagement in the wider Cardiff community would continue, but that &#8220;it will take years.&#8221; She stated that the current great challenge Muslim community organizers face is handling new volunteers, describing an tendency for many new volunteers joining for the wrong reason of self-aggrandizement and thus dropping out before long when faced with the altruistic, humble nature of the work. She said that dealing with such individual properly also had to be balanced with managing their more committed volunteers correctly to prevent them &#8220;burning out&#8221;.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-17454\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Muslim_Community-_Everyday_Life_in_Butetown_Cardiff_Wales_UK_1943_-newer-625x351.jpg\" alt=\"muslim_community-_everyday_life_in_butetown_cardiff_wales_uk_1943_-newer\" width=\"625\" height=\"351\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-17454\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Muslim_Community-_Everyday_Life_in_Butetown_Cardiff_Wales_UK_1943_-newer-625x351.jpg\" alt=\"muslim_community-_everyday_life_in_butetown_cardiff_wales_uk_1943_-newer\" width=\"625\" height=\"351\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amanda Morris from the Muslim Council of Wales helps shed some light on Muslim involvement in Cardiff&#8217;s community and politics, past and future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":411,"featured_media":17300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-17287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-city"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community? - InterCardiff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community? - InterCardiff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Amanda Morris from the Muslim Council of Wales helps shed some light on Muslim involvement in Cardiff&#039;s community and politics, past and future.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"InterCardiff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-18T16:16:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Islam-featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ciaran Kovach\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ciaran Kovach\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community\",\"name\":\"Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community? - InterCardiff\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Islam-featured.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-18T16:16:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#\/schema\/person\/2f6f8236e6619ab96283bde972dd98bc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Islam-featured.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Islam-featured.jpg\",\"width\":950,\"height\":533},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/\",\"name\":\"InterCardiff\",\"description\":\"A global city for internationalists\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#\/schema\/person\/2f6f8236e6619ab96283bde972dd98bc\",\"name\":\"Ciaran Kovach\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/953d8631c8f431a87e1c90d417ec7df2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e3d92909785da21ea6d7d9555359a20d76a7c8817440ae618c2a3432b6f77a78?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e3d92909785da21ea6d7d9555359a20d76a7c8817440ae618c2a3432b6f77a78?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ciaran Kovach\"},\"description\":\"MA in International Journalism student at Cardiff University. Formerly studied Undergraduate at Aberystwyth University in International Politics and Military History.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/currentinternationalist.wordpress.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/author\/kovachofmon\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community? - InterCardiff","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community? - InterCardiff","og_description":"Amanda Morris from the Muslim Council of Wales helps shed some light on Muslim involvement in Cardiff's community and politics, past and future.","og_url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community","og_site_name":"InterCardiff","article_published_time":"2016-11-18T16:16:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":950,"height":533,"url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Islam-featured.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ciaran Kovach","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ciaran Kovach","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community","name":"Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community? - InterCardiff","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Islam-featured.jpg","datePublished":"2016-11-18T16:16:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#\/schema\/person\/2f6f8236e6619ab96283bde972dd98bc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Islam-featured.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/11\/Islam-featured.jpg","width":950,"height":533},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/global-city\/just-how-active-is-cardiffs-muslim-community#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Just how Active is Cardiff&#039;s Muslim Community?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/","name":"InterCardiff","description":"A global city for internationalists","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#\/schema\/person\/2f6f8236e6619ab96283bde972dd98bc","name":"Ciaran Kovach","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/953d8631c8f431a87e1c90d417ec7df2","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e3d92909785da21ea6d7d9555359a20d76a7c8817440ae618c2a3432b6f77a78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e3d92909785da21ea6d7d9555359a20d76a7c8817440ae618c2a3432b6f77a78?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ciaran Kovach"},"description":"MA in International Journalism student at Cardiff University. Formerly studied Undergraduate at Aberystwyth University in International Politics and Military History.","sameAs":["http:\/\/currentinternationalist.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/author\/kovachofmon"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/411"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17287"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/intercardiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}