Every Friday, someone says Muslims don't sit together. Let's find out who's actually not sitting.

Because "unity" has become a catch-all excuse. If there's a social problem, blame disunity. If a country hasn't developed, blame disunity. If there's foreign interference, blame disunity — and so on. What unity actually means, and where it's needed, is almost never defined before the blame is handed out.

Every organisation or group contains more than one opinion — that's normal, not a crisis. Most groups, workplaces, and businesses stay unified around a clear objective, purpose, and target, despite that internal difference.

The only way out of vague blame is clarity, and clarity requires defining things precisely — a process we call quantification. This Index starts with one specific, highly visible part of that process: whether a mosque has actually hosted someone from a genuinely different group. It isn't the only measure of unity that matters, but it's a foundational one — because it's concrete, observable, and can't be argued away.

No. There may be over 1,000 mosques in the UK, but the number of distinct groupings is only in the region of 10 to 30. That means a single mosque could realistically host a guest from every other grouping within a year or two, simply by inviting one genuinely different group at a time.

A public, opt-in register of mosques who have committed to inviting a genuinely different group to take part in their Juma prayer — whether that's the Azaan, the Bayaan, or the Khutba and Salat itself. It records who has hosted, who is open to it, and who hasn't responded.

We're saying the people best placed to demonstrate unity are the ones leading the prayer — not the ordinary Muslims who already mix all week without issue. The Index isn't about blame; it's about giving mosque leadership a simple, concrete way to lead by example instead of only speaking about it.

No. Hosting a guest for the Azaan, Bayaan, or Khutba doesn't require either mosque to adopt the other's positions. It's a single act of hospitality and public example — not a merger of maktabs.

No — that's the highest tier, not the only one. A mosque can start by opening up the Azaan or the Bayaan, both of which are lower-barrier and, in the case of the Bayaan, not even a compulsory part of the prayer. Mosques can move up to the Khutba and Salat when they're ready.

Every listing states the mosque's own group or school of thought, and a match only counts if the guest's declared affiliation is genuinely different — not simply a different building from the same grouping.

That's fine — register for a lower tier, or host a guest for a community event rather than the Juma prayer itself. It's listed honestly as the lightest form of participation, but it's still a start, and better than doing nothing while continuing to lament disunity.

Registered mosques that haven't yet hosted or offered a guest appear on the register as "pending," not "refused." This effort has only included mosques that are already in the public domain — so a mosque's status, if it hasn't registered at all, is simply "No response to Unity Challenge." That's a record of where things stand, not an accusation.

Possibly — but everyone with a stake in Muslim unity or disunity already does this: the general Muslim public, governments, and even prominent Muslims who have made these categorisations themselves when engaging with governments. With how freely this kind of information already circulates online, working it out takes minutes, not investigation. The only people not using it constructively are ordinary Muslims. The Index simply puts that same information to a positive use — recognising the mosques and Imams who take real steps toward unity, rather than only those who talk about it.

Both mosques confirm the arrangement before it's listed, and events are expected to be documented — typically through a social media post or a short public record at the time.

Registering a mosque and appearing on the public index is free.

The founding suggestion is a minimum of once a month for a mosque to be considered consistently active, rather than a one-off gesture.

Juma is the founding focus, since it's the recurring moment where the same lament about disunity is repeated most often. Extending the model to other events, such as Eid prayers or community gatherings, is something we're open to as the Index grows.

The Index is run as an independent project, not affiliated with any single mosque, school of thought, or organisation.

Use the "Register your mosque" button at the top of this page. You'll be asked to confirm your mosque's details, your declared group or school of thought, and which tier you're open to hosting first.