There are no nasty judges, booing crowds, tearful auditions or backstabbing. But the competition is just as tough. Eight mosques are vying to become Britain's Model Mosque 2007 in a televised competition which marries halal principles with the knock-out rules of reality TV. The series, shown tonight on the Islam Channel, is not a beauty pageant, as aesthetics are not important. Instead, mosques are assessed on their interfaith work, women's facilities, youth services and their transparency on finances, policies and management.Judges used these criteria to whittle the candidates down from 500 mosques to eight. The finalists hail from Bradford, Birmingham, Cricklewood, Croydon, Glasgow, Haringey, Leyton and Manchester.
| If any of our UK commentariat has an opinion or info about these, mosques or areas, please fill us in. |
Each week a presenter grills two mosque representatives in the studio and viewers text in to keep in their favourite. The mosque with the most votes moves to the next stage. There will be a live final next month in front of the 25,000-strong Muslim crowd attending the Global Peace and Unity event at London's Excel Centre, and it will be broadcast to a potential audience of billions.
Judges include Respect councillor Salma Yaqoob and Sir Iqbal Sacranie, from the Muslim Council of Britain. The winning mosque scoops a £35,000 consultancy prize, which will support funding and training proposals.
Organisers are also keen to use the programme as a way of dispelling fears non-Muslims have about mosques. They dispatched questionnaires to 1,000 mosques and received 450 responses.
Mr Hussain described the 14-month selection process as rigorous. "We did internet research, looked at press coverage, spoke to regular worshippers, prayed there ourselves - like mystery shopping. We did our homework. We did not find any evidence of this radicalisation that's supposed to be everywhere. The big surprise is how many good mosques are out there. I was also surprised to see how willing people were to help out."
He and the channel's chief executive, Mohammed Ali, are wary of the show being interpreted in a non-religious way. Mr Ali said: "It's not the X-Factor because there is no singing and dancing and it's not mosque idol because worshipping idols is forbidden."
| Technically, it prolly *is* forbidden, but it is also da'wa, and deceipt to the infidel, so it's halal. For now. |
Many younger Muslims, particularly women, have complained that mosques are run by small cliques of men from distinct clans or families rather than by the wider community. "The transition of power between the two generations is very important. We don't want to see conflict. There has to be a smooth handover, like Gordon Brown and Tony Blair."