Brother Abdool Alli - a tribute

Today, everyone in our community lost a neighbour, a leader and a friend.

Mr Abdool Alli, the president of the Wightman Road Mosque, but known to all as "Brother Alli”, passed away this morning.

A tireless force for good community relations ever since his arrival in this country from Guyana in 1959, he began his remarkable mission by working on community relations within the Guyanese community, but he soon broadened out his activities to the community at large. The sheer number and variety of organisations to which he contributed and the length of his service are testimony to the importance of that mission.    

He was a chaplain at the Whittington Hospital, a leader of the interfaith Group in Haringey, an advisor to the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE), a board member of Asian Centre in Caxton Road, a member of the World Congress of Faith, of the United Nations Association, of the Ethnic Minorities Joint Consultative Committee in Haringey and from the 1960s to the present a member of the Caribbean Hindu Society of Brixton. He also served as a member of consultative committees with Metropolitan Police.

It is, however, though his work with the Islamic Cultural Society that he most distinguished himself. Before he got to work, there were few mosques and fewer opportunities for the small number of Muslims from Guyana to worship together. Brother Alli changed all that.

At first his home served as the venue for small groups wishing to observe Friday prayers. So successful was he in being a host to these, however, that the hire of a community hall soon became necessary. Then, in the early 1980s he led a fundraising campaign, which ultimately raised over £2.5 million and succeeded at first in purchasing the community centre in Wightman Road Haringey, and then in erecting Haringey’s first purpose-built mosque – a building which has served also as the first Islamic Cultural Centre in the United Kingdom. The original mosque was completed in 2001.

The mosque rapidly became the preferred place of worship for many persons, coming from well beyond Mr. Alli’s own Guyanese community. This led, in 2014, to the opening of a large extension to the original building which, in keeping with Mr. Alli’s outward looking ethos, contains not only premises for religious observance, but various other rooms where groups doing good within the wider community are welcome to meet. Such is the consideration for others, that some of the entrances have been designed so that visitors to these facilities can get to them without even having to remove their shoes.

The inclusivity of the Mosque is also borne out by the prominence which women have had in its administration.

When the new extension was opened, the local MP, Mr. David Lammy, spoke for all of us when he exclaimed, “You have created a palace!” At the time Mr. Alli was a mere 83 years old.

Since then, he involved himself in plans to provide residential care services for elderly members of the Muslim faith, and to improve the quality of funeral services.

To those of us in the wider community, his kindly and unassuming manner his approachability and his wisdom, informed by his many years of service, gave rise to great esteem. And he was always available, whether at his office in the mosque where he was often the first port of call for people in need, or at public meetings in times of crisis, such as when the Somali cultural centre in Muswell Hill was destroyed in 2013.

As recently as November 2017, he organised an open house for UK Parliament Week to enable elected representatives to meet the public.

When recently I began to gather support for him to receive an Honour, the enthusiasm was universal. Former Hornsey & Wood Green MP, Lynne Featherstone, wrote enthusiastically in support as did her successor, Ms. Catherine West MP. The latter wrote, “At a time when we are seeing hate crime, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on the rise in our society, Mr. Alli is a diligent advocate for countering such hate, bringing people, whatever their colour or creed together.”

He had the ability, common amongst the great, but rare amongst the rest of us, to make everyone he ever met feel special.

How rich our community was for his presence, and how richer still it will be for the wonderful institution that he created.