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Entrepreneurs learn about fellow feelings

August 4, 2016 09:08
Fellowship participants at Regent’s Park mosque

By

Rosa Doherty,

Rosa Doherty

4 min read

It is shortly after midday and more than 1,000 Muslims are gathered for jumu'ah - the Friday prayer held weekly at the London Central Mosque in Regent's Park.

But, as the call to prayer echoes over the loud-speaker, the worshippers catch sight of an unfamiliar figure picking his way through the prayer mats.

Rabbi Dr Shmuly Yanklowitz is at the mosque as part of a innovative project bringing together Muslim and Jewish entrepreneurs involved in running or developing social-action projects.

It is fair to say that he is experiencing an initial nervousness. "Everyone was aware that I was wearing a kippah; they were all noticing it," he says. "That was the largest group of Muslim men that I have ever seen. I felt both the excitement and energy of the experience and a little bit of fear, as a religious Jew, being in a room with a thousand Muslim men."

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