Islamic Centre Security

Introduction

Majlis e Ulama e Shia (Europe) has created this new page for the benefit of all places of worship to benefit from, especially for the Shia Islamic centres, mosques in the UK.

There has been an increase of attacks on Places of worships throughout the UK, ranging from vandalism, arson and driving cars into scores of worshipers, at the time of writing this article, the UK Security threat level was set as ‘Severe’, you can check this anytime, look for the link below. This Threat levels means that the chances of an attack are imminent/ highly likely.

The UK government and security agencies have provided a healthy amount of guidance and support.

Below is links to key online resources, training and funding, which we would recommend all security concerned management to read and look to follow the guidance where applicable.

Recommended Online Resources:

NaCTSO – Crowded Places Guidance This link will take you to the comprehensive National Counter Terrorism document, approx. 190 pages of advice for all kinds of places where large amount of people maybe gathered, it contains a specific chapter for Places of worship. When you go to the site, open the document and select Places of worship from the first page, this will take you to the sections which comprehensively cover prevention, incident management, measures, infrastructure, support and advice needed.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/crowded-places-guidance

 

Security Threat level Checking

UK’s intelligence agency (Mi5), publicly share the threat levels, these may change any time based on any global, regional or local incident that take place, in the event of an escalation you are likely to first hear this on national news channels.

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/threat-levels

 

ACT E-Learning

ACT Awareness eLearning will provide nationally recognised corporate CT guidance to help industry better understand, and mitigate against, current terrorist methodology.

ACT Awareness eLearning will provide nationally recognised corporate CT guidance to help industry better understand, and mitigate against, current terrorist methodology.

The following eLearning Modules are available:

  1. Introduction to Terrorism
  2. Identifying Security Vulnerabilities
  3. How to Identify and Respond to Suspicious Behaviour
  4. How to Identify and Deal with a Suspicious Item
  5. What to do in the Event of a Bomb Threat
  6. How to Respond to a Firearms or Weapons attack
  7. Summary and Supporting Materials

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/act-awareness-elearning

 

Crime Prevention – Detailed guide and advice for crime prevention in general.

https://www.gov.uk/crime-justice-and-law/crime-prevention

 

UK Grants available for Security Infrastructure

UK Gov grant covers up to 3 security measures for places of worship, a detailed process on how to gain funding is on the link below.

The process can be time consuming, and it may be best to have your bid reviewed by expert bid writers, or feel free to send through to MUS, we can provide you advice from centres that have successfully gone through this process.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/places-of-worship-security-funding-scheme