• The reverend who opened his church
It is a 20-minute walk from Grenfell Tower to the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage centre run by Abdurahman Sayed. The mosque became a central source of emergency support on the night of 14 June and has continued to help survivors. Sayed, a benevolent and softly spoken man, remembers: “I was at home – I live in east London – and it was around 5am when I got a text from a colleague stating there was a fire. I said we must open our door, welcome anyone, regardless of faith or gender.” Sayed had no idea of the fire’s scale. He thought everything would be resolved in no time.
It was Ramadan and at the mosque they had laid in supplies of water and dates for breaking their fast each evening. Sayed drove directly to the mosque, loaded his car with the dates, water and a few clothes, and headed towards the tower. He found Ladbroke Grove cordoned off. It was not until later, with the help of two police officers (“we have a good relationship with them”), that he was escorted through the checkpoints to deposit his offerings at the Methodist church. He was on automatic pilot; it was too early to think. He could clearly see that the building was shrouded in smoke yet in a situation of such severity he could think only about how to give comfort to survivors.
Continue reading...from Islam | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2t1vVVx
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