The UK\u2019s oldest Turkish mosque is at risk of closure due to rising costs and a dwindling congregation.
\nErkin G\u00fcney, the owner of the Masjid Ramadan, in Dalston, north-east London, said the building\u2019s bills have tripled in recent years and he is struggling to cover them alongside rising maintenance costs.
\nThe mosque has received some support from the wider Muslim population but its future is still uncertain.
\nMr G\u00fcney said that he never thought of closing the mosque, which is also known as Shacklewell Lane Mosque, but he could be left with no choice.
\n\u201cIt was the first Turkish mosque in the United Kingdom,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWe are Turkish Cypriots. The congregation either has passed away or moved out. And then 10 or 15 other mosques have opened, and we have been ignored.\u201d
\nThe building, a former synagogue built in 1903, had been abandoned by the 1970s. Mr G\u00fcney\u2019s father took over the building, creating the UK\u2019s first Turkish mosque.
\n\u201cWe were full up for years,\u201d Mr G\u00fcney said.
\nThe mosque is still busy for Friday prayers but has fewer worshippers during the week, partly because its congregation has moved to cheaper areas due to the rising prices in the area, which has undergone heavy gentrification in recent years.
\n\u201cOur congregation has moved out, moved on. It\u2019s too expensive. They\u2019ve gone to a quieter area,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe cost of living has played a part. The Low Traffic Neighbourhood has also played a part,\u201d he added, explaining it now takes worshippers much longer to reach the mosque due to road changes, which has put some people off attending altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK\u2019s oldest Turkish mosque is at risk of closure due to rising costs and a dwindling congregation. Erkin G\u00fcney, the owner of the Masjid Ramadan, in Dalston, north-east London, said the building\u2019s bills have tripled in recent years and he is struggling to cover them alongside rising maintenance costs. The mosque has received some …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16718,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16716\/revisions\/16718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}