Culture and Heritage

May 14

2013
Michael Palma De Guzman

[Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.]

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

Culture and heritage

Executive summary
The history of CMIC Croydon Mosque Islamic Centre Content

Summary Copy Right Topics Objectives Technology Used Resources & references en it all began and how it is now. Images Video Summary

Activity and client organisation The client organisation I have chosen for my project is for a mosque in my local area. It's the Croydon Mosque & Islamic Centre. I have decided to write a history about the first mosque in the area and how the culture of Islam grew in Croydon and how it expanded. I will be showing pictures of how the Mosque use to look like and comparing it to the way it is now. The mosque has been expanded within the years. I will have interviews with the head of department and explaining how the mosque was when it all started to compare where it is now. Videos will allow the user and reviewer to see the differences about the area and showing and explaining how the mosque is and what lectures they can provide within the community for the Muslims and for the non-Muslims. The activity will be to describe the history and culture of Muslims within the area and how the Mosque had made a big impact for the area and community. The management of CMIC is equally shared and divided by the operational management and the strategic management. Through the Executive Committee and the Management Committee. When they gather together they make decisions and they will implement on the decisions that has been made so it can be approved. I will help CMIC show it's history and culture in Croydon and how it all began. Brief summary For my project I will be explaining about my local mosque called 'Croydon Mosque & Islamic centre CMIC)'. It all started in a small hall within a house in West Croydon.
1|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

The local Muslims in the community gathered funds together and in due course a large antique house was bought, eventually a mosque was created for the Muslims. Over the years CMIC contains 7 large halls and 3,500 people can fit inside the mosque. It is a very well attended environment where many Muslims come and pray such as 9,000 people in an average week. When Ramadan begins, the mosque population increases by 30,000 people per week during the month. The CMIC has a good multicultural organisation such as Muslims in Pakistan, Indian, East African, Somali, Bangladeshi, Turkish and so many more. They shares equal rights to each other as it's a place of worship. The CMIC has many services such as funerals, tuition, wedding services, children's madrasah (Quran lessons) and Islamic lectures that will help the community in the area. They also participate in local events to help others etc. To build a mosque on the land of Allah, Narrated by Al-Bukhari and Muslim, that the Propet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) said whoever builds a mosque for Allah, Allah will build form him likewise in Paradise Quoted by (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

Copyright As copyright can occur within the project, I will ask the community leader and the individual for their permission requesting a video or an audio. As plagiarism may occur on the project, Its better for me to reference details of text, video, picture and audio to show where the information has come from.

Topics

How the mosque began in the community Muslims growing in the area Expanding the mosque, making it the biggest mosque within the area.

Objectives

To understand the culture and history of Croydon mosque before Muslims were in the area. Give examples and promote it with others regarding this topic.

2|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

Technology used Omeka: Its a free source web-publishing platform for displaying a library collection, archives, museum and scholarly collections and exhibitions. For my project I will be using Omeka to publish stories online so that everyone can view it and give their opinion. It will have Audio, videos and an online gallery for the viewers to see my exhibition of the digital online gallery.

Resources: http://croydonmosque.com/

Platform chosen for the project

I decided to choose the Omeka website as it displays a collection of a picture gallery in an exhibition format of my main local mosque. This will help me to put it on the online web which allows my collection of the exhibition to be shown to people who visits my online management system. The user will be able to amend any information in the future as long as they are a member of the management system. As many students and professionals in Culture and heritage have used the Omeka online management system over the years, it allows the user to design an easy exhibition of the topic to be shown in a professional manner which allows the viewers to view the exhibition. As they needed a professional exhibition to be shown in a technical manner, Omeka will be the easiest method as it uses an extraordinary methodological to broadcast the exhibits. People who has interest in Culture and Heritage and the history of it such as students, they are able to exhibit their work and making it interesting and attractive to the viewers of the exhibition. Omeka allows an easy customisable, good template, easy to layout and easy to design and install into someones computer as it has the facilities which is needed in order to have an exhibition. It supports different types of coding such as HTML etc. By using Omeka, it can control a large number of documentation and data which involves different types of files such as PDF, videos, audios and images etc. Omeka is good for the following system that the user can operate using the software i.e. collection management archieve management system and content management

3|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

Analysis
The project which I have developed online using Omeka, allowed me to use different functions for uploading pictures, audio and videos. I used audio recordings taken from the mosque and uploaded them to the online management system. By having the digital online library and exhibition as my project, it allowed me to express myself on how I felt inside the environment in being in the mosque. It will I will provide the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) provided by speakers of the mosque and lecturers which will let them speak and teach about the religion of Islam. The system will show an exhibition of the mosque with a video recording on how the mosque looks like, an audio recording welcoming the visitors and also a picture gallery showing images around the mosque and to show the art and the structure of the building. As I went inside the mosque, I was able to speak to the Imam and asked his permission in taking the pictures and taking videos of the mosque as I was creating an online management system exhibition for my project. He told me to give my experience of the mosque and give my personal details in the Omeka as I will be able to contact him and give any questions given by the viewer. The main reason of having this project was to show people who love art and who like to take an experience of visiting a place of worship, to provide the public the correct information and details on how they can visit and how it feels to be inside the environment. Also what they will expect to be inside and the outside. It allows every one of the general public to view the exhibition which includes videos, audio, galleries and information. This will provide the correct resources of the mosque.

4|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

Main Aims and Objectives for the project

Make people understand the history of CMIC before the growth of the Muslims community within the area to where it is now and how it has expanded over the years. Introduce the mosque outside the area of Croydon and help them Display to the people of other faiths apart from Islam how they are welcome to visit the mosque as its a welcoming environment for them to view the art and the architect and the Islamic calligraphy. Inspire the people outside the area to visit the mosque. To show the public how the mosque is and how the environment is like by displaying images and videos of the mosque and how the communitys attitude is inside and the outdoor.

Difficulties and opportunities of having an Online Management System

The difficulties that I was having in my project, was to produce the correct details and information of the mosque and its history. I wanted to avoid giving the wrong information to the viewers as I was representing it for my client. If the wrong information was given to the public, it would have been a bad impression and would have disappointed many others such as the community of Croydon and the other public members. My main focus of the project was to establish a positive view for the general public. The information which I will gather will be from the Imam of the mosque as he will provide me with the history and how it began since he came to England. As his English is not his first language, I have asked his nephew who is the second Imam of the mosque to translate the history upon the first stages. Also the main website of CMIC has information regarding the history of the mosque. As they didnt have an exhibition, it allowed me to produce one for them. As Islam is one of the biggest growing religions in the world, it was an opportunity for me to talk about CMIC as the community started with a Pakistani background but many other ethnicities have attended to the mosque over the years. As the growth started over the years, many people have decided to embrace Islam as their faith in CMIC which then became a multi-cultural environment and had been attended by many people around the world. The audio that I have added into the exhibit was produced by many famous speakers around the world who have attended in CMIC, which people from many different countries have attended to seek the knowledge of Islam. They have also
5|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

commented on the mosque itself and the environment and gave their comment saying how they felt welcome and they love the calligraphy. I also took a video inside the building to show how the interior looks like. As the Imam did not want to be filmed, I had to choose that main strategy of the mosque.

Theoretical and Intellectual Issues

In this day and age technology plays a big role into everyday basis, the internet has a large impact into everyones daily lives. As users around the world can communicate with each other, the internet can become a place of advertisement. When technology was not available in the early days, the resources that they had to use was books and journals of others to see the history of the mosque. As the book had many text and pages, to amend a detail of the book, it would have been a problem due to the printing of the book and re-arranging the pages etc. The general public would have got the wrong information and idea. As the internet has grown over the years, it can be used for portraying Culture and Heritage with the digital libraries online world wide as it can be shown in an exhibition and the history of the gallery and articles. As reporters may hear rumours from people and the public, the media can give a bad impression on the mosque and the religion itself, by having the online management system will allow the issues to be solved as it will give the correct details to the viewers and the public by providing evidence and history of its background. This can be done by having an exhibition.

Copyright
As this is a very important matter, a user should not copy and publish other users images without their permission as this can cause problems to the user. If they are copying information such as text, they should be able to reference and put the originals owners information to confirm that the resources had been taken from. I wanted to avoid any copyrights actions. Omeka will allow me to express and show my experience in the Croydon Mosque environments. As I have communicated with the leader of the mosque, I had to take images, audio and video recording which allowed me to carry out the project and exhibition. As I have asked the Local mosque community and the leader of the mosque for their permission on creating a history and exhibition, they was satisfied due to the project being taken on, this allowed me to get the correct details and resources for the project given to me. All the information I have provided is correct without any copyrights as I have taken the pictures and videos myself.
6|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

Technical Walkthrough
As l have studied and absorb on using the online system, I was able to produce the exhibit online. By having different types of format in my project, I was capable of amending and choosing my final template and layout of the exhibition and to question others if it was suitable for my project. I wanted to give the full detailed information about the mosque by putting in audio, images, text and videos. Omeka allowed me to put my own personal logo, choose a theme and template and made it suitable for the targeted audience.

Home Page The home page will display an introduction of the mosque and to give information when it was first build and how it has expanded over the years. On the side of the homepage, it will have different links to the exhibition which will show images and a video. I have created my own logo which has not been copyrighted.

7|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

About Page The About page will give information about the mosque and to show the viewer where the mosque is located and who they can contact in the future if they have enquires and questions to ask. I have given them my telephone number and email address. I will then contact the leader of the mosque to answer the questions.

Browse Exhibit The viewer will be able to see the images of the mosque and a short video clip to show how it looks inside and the outside of the mosque.

8|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

Picture gallery Page The images will show how the mosque looks like being inside the environment and the atmosphere.

Audio Recordings Page

In this page I have produced Islamic lectures which were given by the leader of the mosque and among other visitors who give lectures of Islamic studies. I also produced a short welcome audio for the audience.

Conclusion
For the conclusion of the project, I have met the requirements for my client as he was pleased to see the little exhibition I have produced of the mosque as he was impressed on the history that I have created for the community and produced it in to a Culture and Heritage format. Using Omeka for an online management system, it allowed me to display to the public many images in different angles of the mosque and a picture of the past which I was able to produce as the outcome that I wanted has been successful and was able to display it to everyone. By using Omeka, it allowed me to control the main use of the online system management and if I wanted it to be viewed on public by others as it was an exhibition. This project which I have created will be an attraction to all faiths because

9|Page

Michael Palma De Guzman

Culture and Hertiage

if someone wanted to see an exhibition of a mosque in South London, Croydon will be shown to them and the public by searching in Google. Omeka allowed me to create an online exhibition of the experience and the history of the mosque. Talking about Culture and Heritage in my project, I was able to explain myself as I had an easy access of uploading pictures and videos of the mosque and to show my experience over the years and how important it means to the community of the area. As the mosque is expending the building, I will upload new information and details by keeping up to date with the Imam of the mosque and produce new data such as images and explanation on the extras theyve done on the building. As Im speaking to the leader of the mosque, I will not produce wrong information of the mosque and any offense to any individuals.

Future Development
For the future development I would like to bring additional pictures, audios and videos to the system which will make it look professional and interesting for the other users, as CMIC has their own website, I would like to put my exhibition into their website where other people can view the history of the mosque. The main factor of this project is to shown the history of how Islam has grown through the years in Croydon as CMIC was a small mosque and has manage to build a large environment for the Muslims over the years. I will create a Q&A and a forum where users can interact and leave questions where other users can answer, they can contact and interact with each other by adding these pages into the exhibition as they will be able to share the experiences they had in the mosque and the exhibition and the knowledge theyve gained by visiting the link. People can give their own opinions which allows the mosque to see where they can improve in the future from their past.

References:
Narrated by Al-Bukhari and Muslim, that the Propet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) said whoever builds a mosque for Allah, Allah will build form him likewise in Paradise Quoted by (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim) Book from SAHIH AL_BUKHARI & MUSLIM

10 | P a g e