Though the centre remains temporarily closed, its outreach services continue to touch lives Alhamdu’Lillah. WLIC recently hosted a few exceptional young people, who won the inaugural WLIC Design Your Own Mosque competition.

After completing a 3-week virtual course over Ramadan, in digital TinkerCAD design led by a WLIC Youth Tutor, four young winners emerged to claim prizes at a small, socially distant presentation ceremony in the Masjid. All winners hailed from London, though the online course attracted participants as far away as Yorkshire, Riyadh, Doha and even Hong Kong!

Claiming 1st prize was Taha Kheir (15) from Wembley, who said: ‘My design was inspired by the silhouette of a traditional Bedouin tent, I attempted to incorporate the shapes within my mosque in a modern way. As well as this my mosque resembles an open Quran. Thank you to WLIC for the opportunity, this was an experience I will always cherish as I hope to pursue a career in design, Inshallah.’

Hamad Hasan who escorted his son commented: ‘Ahmad felt the course developed his confidence in the use of design software, opening up a new world of exploration and discovery. Having been involved in Islamic youth projects in South London for the past 20 years, I have a special appreciation for your team and their efforts, in particular how the scheme has attempted to synthesise Islamic and vocational learning with early professional development.’

2nd place went to Ahmad Hassan (13) from Streatham. Followed by a joint 3rd place to Mariam Hasan (18) from Ealing and Imtiaz Ashraf (16) from Tower Hamlets. Each won a 3D printed model of their Mosque design, whilst 1st place claimed his very own, fantastic 3D printer.

WLIC would like to thank the panel of judges from Henley Homes, its youth project lead & volunteers, as well as our generous sponsors, Muslims in Rail and Muslim Engineers Network. We would also like to congratulate everyone who participated, all entries are shown below.