How are Mosques funded? Some people would have you believe that the Muslim community cannot afford to construct multi-million pound Mosques and therefore the money comes from Saudi Arabia. They believe that Saudis are funding Mosques in the UK in order to promote an extreme interpretation of Wahhabi Islam. While this may be true in certain cases the vast majority of the Mosques in the UK are not like this. So how are these Mosques built and funded?

The first bit of shocking news, the vast majority of Mosques in the UK today are not funded nor were they built by Saudi Arabia! When Muslim immigrants first came to this country in large numbers in the late 1960s and 1970s many Mosques were converted houses. In fact, originally they would pray in private houses, and then houses were purchased by a group of individuals and converted into Mosques. You can still see this in some northern towns where the Mosque was originally several houses next to each other which have now been reconstructed as purpose built Mosques.

Some Mosques such as Finsbury Park Mosque were built with Saudi money or donations originally, but generally Mosques in the UK are built, funded and run by the local Muslim community. This would make sense because without a local community to support the Mosque, the Mosque would fall into disrepair.  

Mosques generate income in two ways.

The main way the Mosque generates income is by donations usually given on Friday. During Friday prayers, even in a small Mosque, there are at least several hundred worshippers. Bigger Mosques have significantly more, the average donation (some give more some give less) is at least £5, and at least 60% of the people would donate (again since it is a Mosque more people would probably give), so that gives you several thousands of pounds per week regular income. Now I imagine it costs less than £3000 a week to run a small Mosque, therefore there is no need for the day to day running of a Mosque to be funded by Saudi Arabia. Most Mosques do publish a list of accounts on their notice boards detailing the income - I'll try and get hold of a copy to publish here.

Madrassah classes are also given which teach children the Quran, these are generally subsided and the Mosque does not make any significant income from these. The reason for this is that in Islam you are not supposed to charge someone to teach them religious knowledge but naturally the teachers need to be paid and therefore this money covers their wages and it is not supposed to make a profit. The child typically attends these Madrassah classes for 5 days a week for 2 hours, so it is not something that earns significant income for the Mosque and could in fact make a loss for the Mosque.

Some of the larger Mosques like the East London Mosque or Regents Park may have taken money from the government in the form of grants, however this money is not for the running of the Mosques but rather for community projects.

So the day to day running of the Mosque is covered by the community, what about construction costs?

Well we have these wonderful things in Britain called banks! Yes, although interest is prohibited Mosques do still borrow money from banks to purchase land and buildings (Ask your local Mosque, they will confirm this is true). Assuming the Mosque trust can service the loan, banks are willing to lend. The idea is that once the land or an existing building has been purchased the Mosque can ask the local community to give donations in order to repay the loan quickly, and minimise the amount of interest paid.

During this time, fundraising activity is significantly higher, leaflets are distributed detailing the plans and asking for donations. If it is Ramadan where many more Muslims attend the Mosque everyday, the Mosques may set a fundraising target per day and report back (I’ve witnessed this happening a number of times).

Wealthy individuals give what is called "Qarz-e-Hasana" which are interest free loans. Combined with the regular weekly income the Mosque receives from worshippers, the loan can be paid off within a few years.

The explosion of satellite television stations in the UK has opened a new avenue for donations. Telephone fund-raising campaigns can raise tens of thousands of pounds and not only that; volunteers regularly visit existing Mosques around the country to solicit donations.

So there you have it. Muslims *can* afford to build £20 million Mosques, without needing money from Saudi Arabia.

In the words of the League of Gentlemen, “These are local Mosques for local people, we have no trouble here”