Asalamualaikum dear brothers and sisters,

As many of you will be aware, far-right groups are intending to protest in Southampton tomorrow evening. While most of the notices reference the location as Grosvenor Square in the City Centre, we have also earlier today seen messages mentioning Portswood.

In addition, Southampton Football Club are playing a preseason friendly at St. Mary’s Stadium against Lazio tomorrow evening. Based in Italy, Lazio have a section of fascist fans with a history of racism and violence.

In light of the above, we strongly urge you to avoid the aforementioned areas tomorrow evening, avoid travelling alone where possible, and avoid being drawn into any acts of violence. We particularly ask our Muslim sisters, who increasingly are the target of abusive threats and physical attacks, to keep away from these areas and not to travel alone. Your safety and that of our community is of paramount importance.

Having contacted the Chief Inspector for Southampton, we have been assured the Police have officers dedicated to support any potential targets, including our places of worship. They have, however, not seen any information to suggest the Masjid will be targeted.

It is vitally important that despite provocation, intimidation and toxic rhetoric from the far-right, we do not lose focus of our Islamic values, and maintain the dignity and character as shown to us by the Prophet (PBUH).

May Allah Almighty keep us, our families, our places of worship and all our communities safe. Ameen.

JazakAllah Khairun