Finsbury Park

Coordinates: 51°34′16″N 0°06′03″W / 51.5712°N 0.1009°W / 51.5712; -0.1009

Finsbury Park is a 110-acre (46-hectare) public park in the London Borough of Haringey. Within the ward of the London neighbourhood of Harringay, Finsbury Park is in the area for centuries covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey which are now, as with the Finsbury division of Middlesex from which it takes its name, generally associated with narrower areas beyond the park's boundaries. It was one of the first of the great London parks laid out in the Victorian era and served the whole of the Finsbury division which early developed into suburban and urban areas (based on the then discontinued Ossulstone hundred).

Overview

The park provides a large green space in central north London. It has a mix of open ground, formal gardens, avenues of mature trees and an arboretum area with a mix of more unusual trees. There is also a lake, a children's play area, a cafe and an art exhibition space.

Finsbury Park Mosque

The Finsbury Park Mosque is a mosque located in Finsbury Park, London, London Borough of Islington, England.

The mosque was affected by leadership disputes in the 1990s, allowing extremist Islamist preachers (many of whom were refugees from the Algerian Civil War) to take it over. In 1996 they installed Abu Hamza al-Masri as imam of the mosque, which subsequently developed a reputation as a centre of radical Islamism in London.

In 2014, HSBC bank closed North London Central Mosque's bank account. Several reliable sources report that HSBC closed it because it donated some amount of money to the State of Palestine during the 2014 Israel–Gaza war.

History and location

The main building was opened in 1994 in a ceremony attended by Prince Charles. The mosque is located opposite Finsbury Park station, close to Arsenal Football Club's Emirates Stadium, in the London Borough of Islington.

Former terrorism links

Al Qaeda operatives including "shoebomber" Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui attended the mosque. In 2002, The Guardian reported that weapons training had taken place inside the building.

Finsbury

Coordinates: 51°31′34″N 0°06′12″W / 51.52603°N 0.10347°W / 51.52603; -0.10347

Finsbury is a district of central London, England. It lies immediately north of the City of London, east and north of Clerkenwell, west of Shoreditch, and south of Islington and City Road. It is in the south of the London Borough of Islington. The Finsbury Estate is in the western part of the district. The eastern part of the district, historically regarded as part of Clerkenwell, is now sometimes known as St Luke's.

Etymology

The name is first recorded as Vinisbir (1231) and means "manor of a man called Finn."

History

In the Middle Ages Finsbury was part of the great fen which lay outside the walls of the City of London. It gave its name to the Finsbury division of the Ossulstone hundred of Middlesex. In the early 17th century trees were planted and gravel walks made, and the area became a place for recreation. In 1641 the Honourable Artillery Company moved to Finsbury, where it still remains, and in 1665 the Bunhill Fields burial ground was opened in the area. The City of London Yeomanry (COLY) also had its headquarters in nearby Finsbury Square when founded at the time of the Second Boer War.

Park

A park is an area of natural, semi-natural, or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of grassy areas, rocks, soil, and trees, but may also contain buildings and other artifacts such as monuments, fountains or playground structures. In North America, many parks have fields for playing sports such as soccer, baseball and football, and paved areas for games such as basketball. Many parks have trails for walking, biking and other activities. Some parks are built adjacent to bodies of water or watercourses, and these parks may comprise a beach or boat dock area. Often, the smallest parks are in urban areas, where a park may take up only a city block or less. Urban parks often have benches for sitting and they may contain picnic tables and barbecue grills. Parks have differing rules regarding whether dogs can be brought into the park: some parks prohibit dogs; some parks allow them with restrictions (e.g., use of a leash); and some parks, which may be called "dog parks," permit dogs to run off-leash.

Mosque

A mosque (/mɒsk/; from Arabic: مسجد‎ masjid) is a place of worship for followers of Islam.

There are strict and detailed requirements in Sunni fiqh for a place of worship to be considered a mosque, with places that do not meet these requirements regarded as musallas. There are stringent restrictions on the uses of the area formally demarcated as the mosque (which is often a small portion of the larger complex), and, in the Islamic Sharia law, after an area is formally designated as a mosque, it remains so until the Last Day.

Many mosques have elaborate domes, minarets, and prayer halls, in varying styles of architecture. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but are now found in all inhabited continents. The mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for salat (صلاة ṣalāt, meaning "prayer") as well as a center for information, education, and dispute settlement. The imam leads the congregation in prayer.

Etymology

The word entered English from a French word that probably derived from Italian moschea, a variant of Italian moscheta, from either Middle Armenian մզկիթ (mzkit‘) or Medieval Greek μασγίδιον (masgídion) or Spanish mezquita, from the Arabic مسجد masjid meaning "place of worship" or "prostration in prayer", either from Nabataean masg^ĕdhā́ or from Arabic سجد sajada meaning "to bow down in prayer", probably ultimately from Aramaic s^ĕghēdh.