The people of Whitley Bay's North Tyneside Cultural Association hosted Eid prayers in their Mosque this morning, as they aim to build relationships within the community.
The Mosque are in the process of putting on a series of events, such as a football tournament, today's prayers and a further event next month with market stalls and food and drink on offer.
The prayers event was to mark Eid, one of the most religiously significant days in the Islamic calendar, and a hugely observed holiday, alongside Ramadan when it comes to this.
Read more: Newcastle technology company gives staff three volunteer days a year to help charities in North East
The holiday honours the fact that Abraham was willing to sacrifice one of his sons as an act of obedience to God. When God saw that Abraham was willing, he offered him a sheep to sacrifice instead, sparing the child.
On Eid, food is offered to the least fortunate in the community, in the same way that God gave Abraham a gift in the form of the sheep that took the place of one of his sons.
The North Tyneside Cultural Association and Mosque was originally founded back in the 1970s, but as there was a language barrier it became quite a self contained place, without much of an outreach programme.
Now, with the new generation running the Mosque, they are aiming to expand the community and meet with other groups to learn more about their cultures and vice versa.
Firuz Miah, is one of the new generation of Muslims who are running the Mosque, and he spoke before the event about their plans for the community and the events that they are planning.
"We want to reach out to everyone and make them aware that we are. We are all local lads and have a lot of connections to the North East, while there is also a lot of versatility on our committee.
"We have already hosted a football tournament with special guest Steven Taylor and 11 different teams playing. This was a massive success for us and showed us the scale of events we can create.
"Renovating the Mosque is also a big priority for us, as we feel that it is about time it had more of a visual look of a Mosque from the outside. This would be great for Whitley Bay as it would give it another wonderful bit of architecture.
"The main goal is to show the community that everyone is welcome here. Muslim or non-Muslim, it doesn't matter, we want to be as big a part in our society here in Whitley Bay as we possibly can."
