Dear Sheikh Fazle,
Salaam Alaykum (Greetings of Peace and Gratitude)
It is with deep gratitude that I write to you on behalf of our fellowship to thank you and all those members of your community who were present when you welcomed us to your centre or who helped to make our visit possible. It was one of our most memorable and inspiring events at an AGM meeting.
The responses from our members were effusive in their praise of the quality of welcome, the ecological nature of your building and the outlook of your community, the privilege of sharing in your Friday evening prayers, the meaningful delivery and explanation of your faith, the joy of sharing food together, the quality and depth of discussion and the way in which we went away with a far richer understanding of Islam and the issues facing it in Britain today.
It was heart-warming to see how closely the Wessex Jamaat is working with the Christians in the area, particularly with Rev Susan Allman. We are aware of all the work that you and Mohamed did so please pass on our thanks to him and any others you know who did a lot behind the scenes to make the Friday evening visit work so well.
You will have already received one e-mail containing the reactions of our group and there are more to come which will be more in-depth responses from individuals plus photographs. Our members were clearly moved by their encounter with your community and the richness of this experience has, in many cases, deepened and changed their impression of Islam. Many of us have encountered Islam but the depth we experienced with your community was special.
We know there are still many things we need to understand and work through on both sides but our meeting at Wessex Jamaat gave us hope for the future between our faiths.
As a token of our gratitude please accept the enclosed cheque towards your inter faith work from the centre.
On a personal note we are pleased to have renewed our relationship with the Wessex Jamaat and hope we can continue it in the future.
Yours sincerely
John and Jennifer Spatchet (Minute Secs,)