PUPILS at Wickham CofE Primary School welcomed their local imam to help them explore the idea of pilgrimage.
Year 6 children were learning about pilgrimages in their RE lessons, including the duty of Muslims to travel to Mecca during their lifetime, but they were relying on textbooks and the internet rather than personal testimony.
So Sheik Fazle Abbas Datoo, the imam at Al Mahdi Centre in Wickham, visited the school for the first time to share his experience of pilgrimage.
The imam brought a scale replica of the Kaaba in Mecca and the class walked around the model to imagine the annual event which attracts about three million people.
The children dressed up in the ihram, the clothes worn when on pilgrimage, and listened to personal stories from Sheik Fazle Abbas and Husein Suleiman – who is also from the Al Mahdi community.
The children asked Husein questions about his recent pilgrimage to Mecca.
“I really enjoyed pretending to walk around the Kaaba,” said 10-yearold Kayleigh Gunn.“People were standing on my toes and we were all squashed together! I could imagine what it would be like to visit the Kaaba.”
The school’s headteacher Maria Ackland said: “The visit brought an important personal element to the children’s learning and school staff are keen to embrace further opportunities to enhance learning and promote understanding between those of different races, creeds, and outlooks.”