Exeter Mosque Visit

Staff from Exeter City Football Club and Exeter City Community Trust were joined by Cheick Diabate and Pierce Sweeney to visit the Exeter Mosque on Thursday afternoon, as both teams partnered to learn more about the festival of Ramadan and the greater Muslim Community within the City.

PFA representative Riz Rehman delivered an awareness session to staff in the morning, offering opportunities and consciousness to engage and better accommodate the local Muslim Community into the work that both the Football Club and Community Trust undertake. Riz was also able to highlight the importance of Ramadan and the impact that it can have on staff, within both organisations and the Muslim players at the football club.

The group were then welcomed to the Exeter Mosque by Imam Ahmed Kowsar for a tour of the facility, bringing insight into the humanitarian work of the Mosque alongside the importance it has to the Muslim community within Exeter. The group were able to observe the Dhuhr prayer before being joined by Exeter City Captain Pierce Sweeney and Cheick Diabate. City defender Cheick provided further insight into both Islam and the role that the Exeter Mosque has played in his integration in the City since the age of Seventeen, bringing both friendships and community to his time at the Football Club. Imam Ahmed Kowsar concluded the tour by highlighting the importance of the five pillars of Islam and sounding the Adhan, the call to prayer .

We would like to thank Riz Rehman and Scott Walker from the Professional Footballers’ Association for delivering the Ramadan Awareness Session, for Imam Ahmed Kowsar’s hospitality and to Cheick for offering such an insightful look into his place of worship and religion.