Young Muslims take to streets to clean up after New Year’s Eve celebrations

Young Muslims woke up before dawn today to clean the streets of 50 UK towns and cities as a lot of the country were nursing a hangover.

More than 1,000 Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (AMYA) members held a special prayer then put on hi-vis jackets to go out and collect hundreds of bin bags of rubbish from last night’s celebrations.

British Ahmadiyya Imam Qamar Zafar said: ‘From Luton to London, Glasgow to Guilford, Cardiff to Croydon, across the entire country 1,000 members of AMYA participated in the New Year’s Day clean up.

Young Muslims cleaning the streets of Bolton this morning (Picture: AMYA)

Ahmadiyya Muslims in Bolton before dawn (Picture: AMYA)

‘Islam urges every Muslim to partake in charitable giving, community service, and promote cleanliness.

‘AMYA has and continues to instill young people with a sense of civic responsibility, and a desire to promote harmony within our local communities.’

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He added: ‘The New Year’s Day Clean-up campaign ensures Muslim youth can be active members of society and serve their communities and the environment.’

In 2018 AMYA, the UK’s largest and oldest Muslim youth group, held more than 300 community clean ups and planted 20,000 trees across the country.

AMYA Yorkshire youth coordinator Nadeem Ahmed said: ‘We’ve been doing the New Year’s clean-up for many years now, and each year we see more and more members coming to help.

‘In Islam “Cleanliness is Part of Faith” so there’s no better way to serve our faith and our country, there’s no better way for us to start the new year.’

Epsom saw one of the biggest turnouts for the New Year’s Day clean up (Picture: AMYA)

Members of the AMYA were litterpicking as the sun came up (Picture: AMYA)