Myles Peart-Harris and Azeem Abdulai visit free football session at Swansea Mosque
Swansea City duo Myles Peart-Harris and Azeem Abdulai recently visited Swansea Mosque to gain an insight into the local Muslim community and engage with young supporters.
Swansea Mosque is the largest mosque in Wales, serving a congregation of almost 10,000 in south and west Wales, a significant increase since its humble beginnings in 1982.
Swans midfielders Peart-Harris and Abdulai were given an exclusive tour of the mosque, learning about the history and the modern renovations that have enhanced the services provided to the congregation.
One of those improved facilities is the conference and sports hall, which hosted a football session provided by Swansea City AFC Foundation’s All Jacks programme during the visit.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a facility like this sports hall inside a mosque, where they can do sports activities. The renovations that they’ve done here are really good,” said Peart-Harris, whose faith is of great importance to him.
“It’s a beautiful place, and what they do for the community and how the community help it’s mosque is a great thing.
“Coming from a place where community means a lot and to see how much the mosque supports its community and vice versa, the togetherness that it shows from this religion is what it’s all about.
“I hope the kids are excited to be coached by the Swans Foundation, and me and Azeem are here to show our support and hopefully teach them a few skills. The thing that Islam does is bring people together and this is a great example of that.”
Farid Ali is part of the management committee and the facilities manager at Swansea Mosque, and he was delighted to welcome Peart-Harris and Abdulai into the heart of his community.
“It’s absolutely fantastic for Myles and Azeem to visit the mosque but, more than that, to engage with the community here,” said Ali.
“A lot of our community and especially the children, love football, love Swansea City, so for them to come and see the players they look up to in their local mosque, is fantastic.
“We’ve had conversations about how the community works here and the mosque itself. It’s been great to tell them about the way the community has been here for a very long time in Swansea.
“The mosque has been in its current configuration since 2017. It’s a very large mosque, one of the largest in Wales, we have a congregation of around 2,000 people walking through the building every single week.
“We provide a lot of services such as our food bank, clothes bank and a baby bank (providing infant clothing, toys and food), which we support the community with, so we’re really proud to show the players that.
"We want to have a positive working relationship with the football club so we can help our congregation understand how the community operates and how they can link in.
"We want to establish how our community can take part in football and that’s very important to us.”