Press Release

Sun shines on all in Hainault's Muslim cemetery

18 March 2009

Gardens of Peace open doors to everyone for first community tree planting day.

On a gloriously sunny day, the Gardens of Peace lived up to their name and opened their doors on Elmbridge Road to tree planters across the local community. They included children and their parents from Al-Noor and Apex Primary Schools, the 7th Goodmayes (al-noor) Scouts Group, Councillors Vanessa Cole and Vic Tewari, Sonia Klein, prospective Labour candidate for Ilford North, Abdul Khaliq of Respect Party, as well as the organisers from the Gardens of Peace Muslim Cemetery Trust and the Woodland Trust (the UK's leading woodland conservation charity).

Former Mayor of Redbridge, Councillor Vanessa Cole said: "I had the great privilege of opening the Gardens of Peace back in 2003 and, like the trees planted then, they have grown and flourished. The young people who came to plant trees today under the supervision of the Woodland Trust and parents will be able to watch their saplings grow into beautiful trees that benefit the whole community. Trees help all of us live cleaner lives by taking out pollution, they cut down noise and are wonderful to look at and be amongst - it brings peace to all of us."

The Gardens of Peace Muslim Cemetery, the largest of its kind in Europe, was once part of the vast 4,900 acre historic Hainault Forest, which was broken up in 1851. Sunday's planting of 250 native trees is part of efforts to re-forest a little corner of its original footprint and represents the second time the Muslim Cemetery Trust and the Woodland Trust have worked together.

To date, in excess of 10,000 trees, shrubs and plants have been put into the site, which was a disused piece of land with a polluted ditch when the Muslim Cemetery Trust acquired it in 1998.

Although the cemetery is mainly dedicated for graves, there is now a fresh water stream and a formal area with plants named in the Qu'ran (Muslim holy book) and the Bible, creating an "English-Islamic Experience". The surrounding boundary has areas where trees can be planted, thus creating a screen of native woodland which in part reflect its history.

Tony Chadwick, the Woodland Trust's development officer for Hainault Forest said: "Although we'll never be able to re-create Hainault's ancient woodland here, we can still create a haven for wildlife and people. It's really exciting to be working with the Muslim Cemetery Trust, engaging with local people, and especially children, through the planting of trees and also introducing them to the idea of respect for nature, which is a part of all religions."

In the Islamic faith, the Prophet Mohammad said: "Anyone who plants a tree under which people seek shade or shelter from the sun will have his reward with Allah."

For more information go to Gardens of Peace