Ahmadi Muslims from Dundee have made their way to the UK’s longest-running Islamic convention for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic.
Around a dozen Muslims in the city’s community won a place at the convention, which saw numbers severely restricted after over 30,000 attended from across the world in 2019.
They will visit the 200-acre Oakland Farm in Hampshire for three days of worship and gathering at the event known as the ‘Jalsa Salana’.
Prior to last year’s global pandemic, well over 35,000 people from all over the world attended the last Jalsa, held in 2019.
Dundee Muslims head to UK Islamic Convention
Only UK residents who have been double vaccinated were permitted to enter the ballot to attend the gathering taking place this weekend.
Roughly 4,000 of those who were selected in the ballot, including some from Dundee, will attend one of the three-days of the event amid strict social distancing measures at the pop-up tent village from 6 to 8 August.
Shoaib Khan, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Dundee, will be attending the Jalsa.
He said: “We feel really lucky to have the chance to attend the Jalsa again. My family comes every year and we were really sad that it was cancelled last year.
“It will finally feel like we’re coming out the other side of “Covid” when we can pray together with our friends and family from all over the UK again in those huge marquees.”
It will finally feel like we’re coming out the other side of Covid
All attendees will need to show proof of double vaccination and a negative coronavirus test result in order to gain entry.
Face masks will be mandatory in all enclosed spaces, including the two marquees, each able to accommodate thousands of worshippers.
Organisers said the highlight of the event will be the attendance of the global Islamic Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad.
He will deliver an address to attendees on each of the three days of the Jalsa. The objective of the event is to highlight the true peaceful teachings of Islam and to enable the participants to increase their knowledge and understanding of Islamic teachings and practices.
The event will also be broadcast online and on the community’s worldwide television station, Muslim Television Ahmadiyya (Sky 731), across its 19 television channels.