Mayor praises Muslim community

7:00am Tuesday 29th April 2008

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MEMBERS of a local mosque are preparing to welcome their spiritual leader days after he celebrated his 97th birthday.

Members of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community celebrated the birthday of their leader, His Holiness Dai al Fatemi Dr Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb, on Friday, with a visit from Labour mayoral hopeful Ken Livingstone.

His Holiness is planning a four-week visit to the London mosque from Thursday.

More than 2,000 members attended the Al Masjid Al Husayni Mosque in Northolt at 5.30am on Friday to hear a four-hour address from their leader, before being joined by Mr Livingstone and MP Steve Pound (Lab, Ealing North), in the evening, enjoying a traditional Bohra meal.

Aliasger Morbiwalla, a member of the mosque, said: "Mr Livingstone was full of praise for the community's achievements since we came to this country 60 years ago.

"He hailed us because we are a peace-loving community and we are quite unique because most of us are University educated and we are a diverse community."

During his visit His Holiness is to visit two new mosques belonging to the community in Manchester and Bradford.