Huge crowds attend Muslim leader funeral in Birmingham

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5Pillars (RMS)
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Sufi Abdullah

More than 10,000 mourners paid their respects on Sunday to a Muslim leader who led a campaign to build one of Britain’s biggest mosques in Birmingham.

Sufi Muhammed Abdullah Khan was buried at the Central Jamia Masjid Ghamkol Mosque.

According to reports following his death last Thursday, aged 92, tributes were paid to him as a spiritual leader, an inspiration, a good friend and a “pillar of the community.”

Mourners spilled out of the door at the mosque and thousands paid their respects in the car park and a nearby community centre.

Surrounding roads were jammed by the event, which mosque leaders said was attended by 10,000 people.

Pic by Assed Baig
Pic by Assed Baig

The Daily Mail reported that the Mosque chairman Raja Saleem Akhtar said: “In every sense he was our guide, our leader and our friend. He built this up. He was working in a foundry six-days-a-week and in the community for the rest of the time.”

Sufi Abdullah served in the British Indian Army during the Second World War, including years held by the Germans as a prisoner of war. He left the army in 1962 and helped newly arrived immigrants from the Indian subcontinent in Birmingham.
Reporting from the scene of the funeral Birmingham Mail reporter Neil Elkes said: “There’s an incredible number of people at the Central Jamia Mosque at Poets Corner in Small Heath. Ten thousand mourners are inside the building, while thousands more are packed into the large car park, while prayers are relayed via a public address system.”Even with prayers underway people are still arriving. Every approach road is gridlocked and cars parked on every inch of available kerb.

“This is a huge event for Birmingham Muslims and the crowds show the affection and respect in which Sufi Muhammed Abdullah Khan is held.”

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