Tunbridge Wells Islamic Cultural Centre

Borough: Tunbridge Wells
Ward: St James'

The five times daily salaah in congregation in the masjid is enjoined on men, not on women. Women's salaah is expected to be discreet and private and therefore performed at home. About 72% of UK masjids make some provision for women, but many of these do so by allocating space only when specially asked for. Larger purpose-built masjids often have a gallery over the main masjid room, part or all of which is for women's use. (Excerpt from our book, Islam and Muslims in Britain - A Guide.)

Deobandi: Covers Tablighi Jama'at of course. Deobandis are divided about the importance of Sufism and generally play it down, so we have used 'Sufi' only for those places that are keen to promote Tassawuf

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We highlight different factional interests among Muslims according to some fairly broad mainstream categories, "Bareilvi", "Deobandi" etc. This is euphemistically defined as the masjid's 'Theme', and you may find this contentious. It is a point of principle among most conscientious Muslims that the community is a single entity. While that is a noble sentiment, it is patently obvious that there are clear divisions between Muslims and between masaajid, based on religious and ethnic differences. While many Muslims are content to use any masjid, many others make careful choices about where to go. And for those who would like a change, the information will help you pick somewhere different.

Any masjid is certain to have users who follow different practices, and this is something to appreciate (unlike other religions which are unshakably denominational). However where a doctrine dominates, that will clearly influence what is practised at that location.

Further reading from our book, Islam and Muslims in Britain - A Guide:

• Principle Islamic Factions
• Muslim Groups in Britain
• The Mosque - Factions and Control

It would be Islamically immoral to label masaajid as 'belonging' to a given ethnicity, yet this is the reality of most masaajid. Many were set up as centres for a particular community and it is important for that community to have somewhere where events, speeches and madressah teaching are in the mother-tongue. However it would be useful to have an 'ethnicity index', in which a masjid scores 1 for each committee member of a different ethnicity. Meanwhile we have highlighted masjid monoculture by naming the management's dominant ethnicity.

Further reading from our book, Islam and Muslims in Britain - A Guide: Mosque Organisation

If you do find any omissions or inaccuracies in the information above, please use this form to tell us. Jazacullah-khairan.
Note that much of this information comes from publicly available sources including various directories (including ones whose data is supplied by the public on-line and not checked) and local authority published information about local minority-group facilities. The contributors have taken a lot of trouble to correct as much data as possible - you may have corrections for us, but you may find that our data is more accurate!