Morgan spreads message of love
ASTUDENT who arranged for an arson-hit mosque to be covered with dozens of multi-coloured hearts says she wanted to show the community ‘love and support.’
On Monday dozens of heart-warming messages were stuck to the outside of Jamia Qasmia Mosque in Oldham.
It came after the front door of the Villa Road building was torched by arsonists just hours after the Manchester Arena terror attack last Monday.
Morgan Harper-Jones, originally from Syke and a student at BIMM, the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in Manchester, organised the ‘love-bomb’ after reading about the arson-attack.
The 20-year-old, who lives in Rusholme, created an event on Facebook asking for support, and soon she had more than 100 messages of support which people had asked her to post.
Morgan said: “At school a teacher once showed us an article about a similar thing happening in Sweden after a mosque there was attacked and it always stuck in my mind.
“So when I read about the mosque in Oldham being attacked I thought it would be amazing to do the same thing.
“I thought it would be really great to show them love and support and show them that the actions of whoever did this do not represent the rest of the UK.
“The people from the mosque were so friendly and supportive.
“They fed and watered us and one person even apologised because it was Ramadan and everyone was fasting so they had to cook the food from fresh. Every message we posted up came from a different person. It was a really positive thing.”
One message read: “A minority of people are using Monday night’s events to spread hate and discord, and to further their own Islamaphobic agendas.
“Please don’t let them make you feel isolated. You are valued and loved members of our community, of our Manchester, and we will stand against hatred together”.
Mosque member Faisal Shahzad described the messages as ‘really positive and really good for the community.’
He added: “The fire bomb was probably the work of one idiot, but this is loads of people saying we do not agree with you. It’s really positive to see.
“If anyone has a problem they can come into the mosque and speak to us and debate with us. That is the answer, not attacks like this.”