On the 25th of January, The Mosques and Imams Advisory Board partnered with SFI held a Mosque leadership conference event at Minhaj Welfare Foundation in Manchester.
The event covered three interactive sessions each followed by a Q&A session and allowed the participants to do the critical review of their own mosques and Islamic centres. During the Q&A sessions participants were able to raise questions that concern their organisations, consulting the experts about their questions as well as networking with mosque leaders from across the UK.
The first session was presented by Khalid Sofi, who is a partner of Lee Bolton Monier- Williams and specialises in charity and public law. His presentation discussed the legal structures and best practice for governance such as:
- The various legal charity structures
- when to change or upgrade your structure
- responsibilities of trustees
- complying with regulatory obligations and best practice
The second session was presented by Fakrul Choudhury, an SFI consultant who spoke about the ways of ensuring safeguarding for children in faith institutions and mosques, the importance of understanding sexual harassment in a faith setting and the definition of whistle-blowing.
The final session was presented by Mustafa Field OBE, Director of Faiths Forum for London whose session covered a series of key points regarding Building Digital Capacity in Mosques and Islamic Centres and how to tech savvy.