Woking Muslim Mission - Woking Mission

Woking Mission

The Woking Muslim Mission was established by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din. His first stay in England was from September 1912 until August 1914. He established the mission with the encouragement of Maulana Noor-ud-Din, head of the Ahmadiyya Movement till March 1914. After the split in the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1914 Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was associated with the Lahore Branch.

Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din started his work from the inspiration of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who had a deep desire to present Islam to the West. In February 1913 the Khwaja started a monthly journal The Islamic Review, which for over 55 years was the main Islamic journal in the West.

At Eid occasions, from 1913 to the mid-1960s, Muslims from all nations present in England at the time gathered at the Woking Mosque. Woking in those days became a replica in miniature of Mecca in the West, a multinational spectacle that could be matched in its multitude only with Hajj in Mecca itself.

People converting to Islam in England during the years 1913 to the mid-1960s did so generally through this mission. In 1924 it was estimated that there was a total Muslim population in England of 10,000, of which 1,000 were converts.

The well-known book Islam, Our Choice, containing accounts by Muslim converts of how they came to embrace Islam, was originally compiled and published by the Woking Muslim Mission. It has subsequently been re-published all over the world by other Muslim publishers who have deleted the name of the Woking Muslim Mission and of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din from within the accounts given by the converts.