Was the Woking mosque or the Fazl Mosque the first mosque in England?

The building in Woking is older. But it was first put up as a monument, and it first came alive as a mosque with regular prayer through Ahmadi Muslims, who led the prayers there.

Some Muslims rightly point out that the mosque in Woking, in the county of Surrey, is older than the Fazl Mosque in London. As a building, it came first. But the real question is what makes a mosque a mosque.

The building in Woking was not put up by a Muslim congregation as a place of prayer. It came about through the efforts of some non-Muslim Britons, who persuaded patrons abroad to fund it. It was meant to show people in Britain what a mosque looks like and how it is built. For some time it remained more a monument than a house of prayer.

The verse above says that a mosque is kept alive by those who believe in God and observe prayer. In Woking this was first done by Ahmadi Muslims. They were given the use of the building, and an Ahmadi began to lead the prayers there.

The Fazl Mosque in London, on the other hand, was built by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat as a mosque from the very start. Either way, it was Ahmadi Muslims who first established congregational prayer in a mosque in England. More important than who came first, though, is that every mosque belongs to God and remains a place of His worship.