38 Mapesbury Road, the FOSIS Hostel

The FOSIS hostel, 38 Mapesbury Road, near Kilburn station in London, was inaugurated in 1972 to provide residential accomodation in an Islamic milieu and to house the headquarters of the Federation of Students Islamic Societies (FOSIS) and offices of The Muslim magazine. The hostel project was spearheaded by Ebrahimsa Mohamed, with much support provided by the Saudi-Egyptian diplomat, Salem Azzam.

The first warden of the hostel was Ebrahimsa Mohamed, followed by Habib Mohiuddeen. Residents for brief or long sojourns in the 1970s included Dr Jibril Oyekan, Dr Tariq Solaija, Dr Talip Alp, Saleh Akram, Abdul Khudus Naeem, Arshad Yousufi, Jaafer El-Murad, Mohamed Iqneibi. Distinguished visitors at the receptions organised by Ebrahimsa Mohamed included Jafar Shaikh Idris, Muhammad Asad, Hashir Faruqi, Dr Nasim, Professor Khurshid Ahmed, AbdulWahid Hamid, Dr Zafar Zaidi, Adil Salahy, Ashur Shamis and Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi (see also The Muslim report, above). Workers in the FOSIS office in the basement included Iqbal Asaria, Humayun Akhtar, Dr AbdurRaouf, Muhammad Musa Haneefa, M H Razik, Arifin Suhaimi, Dawud Rosser-Owen, Ziauddin Sardar.

JS/July 2026