MORE than 1,000 people visited the Sheffield Islam Festival over four days.
"It's been really well attended by people of all faiths," said Mashood Nazir, one of the event organisers.
We've had people from Somalia, Egypt from all over all coming here to talk to one another."
The festival, which ended on Sunday, included several talks and discussions about the place of Islam in the modern world, and was based in marquees in Mount Pleasant Park, Sharrow, and in Fargate.
"We want to link communities, to build bridges and to celebrate diversity," said Abdool Qadir Gooljar, president of the South Yorkshire branch of the Islamic Society of Britain, who organised the event together with help and support from Sheffield First, Sheffield City Council, South Yorkshire Police and a host of local churches and religious organisations.
"Here in Sharrow and Nether Edge there is a multi diverse community, and we have to bring everyone together to celebrate peace across the faiths, and to get to know one another.
"We're living in a world full of chaos and war, so we are bringing people together to live in peace and to celebrate justice."
There is still a big challenge, Mr Gooljar admitted, but he insisted that the determination of different faith communities to work together to build community cohesion has been a factor in Sheffield's relative lack of racial unrest.
"But we can't take that for granted. Here in Sharrow we want to live together to build a better community so our children and grandchildren can live in peace and tolerance"
Part of the aim of the festival was to show people of other faiths how Islam has featured in local and world history – the Islamic Society of Britain says that there have been Muslims in Britain for over 300 years, with now an estimated 1.8m Muslims in the country, including many doctors, lawyers and business people.
"We're here to stay – and we've made a big difference to Britain!" says the society.
Organisers hope that the festival will become a regular event – an Islam Awareness Week is already in place for this November.
The festival included a visit by 150 non-Muslims to hear a sermon given by Muslim convert Idris Tawfick and on Sunday there were performances by singers, comedians and other artists well-known in the Muslim world, including Aashiq Al Rasul, Khaleel Muhammad, Prince Abdi and Khayaal Theatres – many of whom signed photos afterwards for the many teenagers and young people in the park.
"I think we've been fortunate in Sheffield," said Abdool Qadir Gooljar.
"We need to continue this work if other things continue to create tension.
"We want to work to remove tension and replace it with love and tolerance and friendship."
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