This toolkit is a collection of ideas to increase youth participation in Britain’s mosques and Muslim communities. The ideas, developed by young Muslim women and men, respond directly to the challenges that young Muslims face in contemporary, multicultural Britain.
While this toolkit is primarily to assist Imams and mosque personnel in responding to the needs of young people, it will be of interest to policy makers too. Restrictions on youth participation in the communal hub of Muslim communities – the mosque – threatens smooth transition of influence and responsibility from one generation to the next. Outdated, closed and sometimes exclusionary governance in Britain’s mosques means that young people’s knowledge, skills and enthusiasm often are lost. The ideal of a peaceful, collaborative and fair multicultural country will be aided by including and developing the unique perspectives and capabilities of young British Muslims, many of whom are the first British-born generation in their families and the first to grow up in a British-Muslim culture.
The ideas inside this toolkit are creative, practical and easy to implement, but they have transformative power. Demos and MINAB recommend that the ideas are considered by all British mosques to facilitate better governance and leadership, and in so doing, enable young people to contribute more to British society.