Ipswich Mosque holds community Iftar meal Ramadan

Nurul Chowdhury, Mahbub Alam Shamim and Fotik Miah all welcomed guests to the mosque on Bond Street, Ipswich

Muslims have welcomed people from the wider community to share their evening Iftar meal when they break fast during Ramadan.

Ipswich Mosque said 600 people attended on Sunday night, including about 50 guests.

Dates and water were served after 18:06 GMT, the official time of sunset, followed by curry.

"Every room has been full of people of all different backgrounds," said chair Nurul Chowdhury.

"It's wonderful to see everybody coming together," he said

"The mosque doesn't just belong to the Muslims. The mosque belongs to the community that the mosque is in.

"We try to make it as such and hence every opportunity we get, we invite our neighbours and our friends who are of faith or no faith to come and join us and enjoy our events together."

Head teacher Kate Hodgetts brought her two sons to the Iftar

Kate Hodgetts, head teacher of nearby St Helens Primary School, said: "I think it's really nice to see the mix of people. It would be good to see some more families.

"I've brought my two boys along. They're in a rural school and they do not have this diversity and I think it's really important that different cultures open their doors to people to learn more about it, so we can get rid of some ignorance in the world."

Sue Raychaudhuri said she had seen a lot of friendly faces

Sue Raychaudhuri, who attended with her husband, said: "I'm a Hindu girl from a Hindu family, my husband's Christian, but I have a lot of Muslim friends in Ipswich.

"To break fast together, it's such a wonderful feeling to show solidarity and support as well."

During speeches before the Iftar meal, people were urged to start doing "one good thing a day".

Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, which form the basis of how Muslims live their lives.

The other pillars are declaration of faith, prayer, charity and pilgrimage.