Muslim group bids to build East Lothian's first mosque

Published on Saturday 18 October 2008 10:51

A BID is being launched to build the first mosque in East Lothian.

Asian community leaders are set to meet council officials to discuss finding a suitable site or building that could be converted.

More than 100 Muslim families from across the county currently have to travel to Edinburgh for prayers at least once a week. There are seven mosques in the city, and three in West Lothian, but none in East or Midlothian.

East Lothian Ethnic Minority Forum, which has a majority of Muslim members, has put forward the idea. It says a purpose-built mosque could cost 300,000, so an existing building would be the best option in the short term.

Jalal Chaudry, the forum's vice president, said members planned to meet local councillors and officials to discuss the idea.

He said: "Almost every council area has its own mosque, but we don't have any.

"We're supposed to pray five times a day, preferably in a mosque. Even if that's not possible, we should at least go for Friday prayers.

"The problem is, people in East Lothian have to close their shop or leave work for two or three hours and travel to Edinburgh.

"There are also quite a few people who live in Edinburgh, but work in East Lothian.

"We also need to teach our children their religious education. Usually children go after school, or on a Saturday, but at the moment they have quite a long journey."

He said they would like to find a building in Musselburgh, Haddington, Tranent or Prestonpans, which all have large Muslim populations. The forum has already contacted East Lothian Council two years ago, but the first approach made little progress.

Mr Chaudry, who lives in Musselburgh, said the group hoped to find some council funding for the project, but would raise other money from the community.

He said: "We would like to build a purpose-built mosque in East Lothian, but unfortunately that would be quite costly. We would like to ask East Lothian Council if they can come up with a building that we could use.

"If they can sell us a building at a reasonable rate, then it would cost us about 100,000 to do it up."

A council spokeswoman said the idea was still at an early stage, and it had not yet met the forum to discuss it.

She said: "We'd be delighted to speak to them at an early opportunity to see what support we can give them."