Standing with clipboards in hand outside a mosque in the East London borough of Newham stood two volunteers from the Newham Muslim Burial Association (NMBA), asking mosque-goers about their experiences burying their loved ones.
Admittedly, not part of the typical Friday Prayer routine, but that didn't stop people from giving these volunteers their time of day.
The volunteers were there to deliver the hard truth to those listening: Newham is predicted to completely run out of burial space by 2032.
As expected, alarm bells were raised. Many were shocked to hear this for the first time; others saw it as an opportunity to voice their dissatisfaction with the entire burial process.
From cost to accessibility to unmet faith needs, it was clear that this issue required urgent attention. And it got urgent attention from the NMBA.
The Newham Muslim Burial Association, established in 2023, is a grassroots community organisation advocating for better burial provisions for Newham residents, covering land availability, accessibility, affordability and faith-sensitive needs.
"Newham has never had a community organising initiative like this, built from scratch and on a voluntary basis," one NMBA spokesperson said.
"The alternative was watching a crisis unfold right in front of us," she continued. "We couldn't sit back and wait for the local authorities to do something. We had to take matters into our own hands."
It started with a listening campaign in April. Volunteers visited mosques, conducted online surveys, and generally spoke with people.
The consensus could not have been more telling — 86% of respondents said burial provisions for Muslim communities were insufficient, while 93% said the average £4,000-£5,000 cost of a burial plot was unaffordable.
Behind these percentages are real families with real experiences.
One Newham resident said that "the local authorities are very oblivious to the needs of the Muslim citizens, who are already economically very poor," adding that many even "get into debt due to the high costs of burials."
Another resident said the high cost meant they had to bury their loved ones in the Gardens of Peace cemetery, a significant distance from where the family lived, making visits to loved ones far more difficult than they needed to be.
Grieving families don't deserve extra financial burdens at an already distressing time, as one resident put it: "The average Newham resident doesn't have that kind of money at hand, especially when deaths are completely unexpected."
The NMBA's mission was to bridge the gap between Newham's decision-makers and the people who felt the consequences of those decisions. This did not mean making empty promises, but a genuine determination to achieve material outcomes.
The wins start rolling in
After months of lobbying, the group finally saw its first major success in March.
Newham Council granted £750,000 to the NMBA to support local burial provisions for the coming financial year, and the council promised to work closely with the NMBA and local mosques to develop a long-term plan.
This is an undeniable "positive step" in the right direction, but the Chair of the NMBA, Kamran Qureshi, still cautioned that "we need a sustainable, multi-year strategy."
He added: "We cannot afford to put a sticking plaster on a systemic issue."
His words highlight that this sum of money doesn't signify the end of the fight, but rather indicates that their efforts weren't going to waste.
An NMBA spokesperson said, "The council will still need our help to turn this money into something tangible," showing how this issue will always be grounded in community action and collective organising.
In April, the local mosque, Masjid al-Humera, voluntarily donated £115 to the cause, showing that when a community cares, it will show up in whatever capacity it can.
Then, in June, an even more significant step was taken.
Dignity Group, which owns the East London Cemetery, agreed to provide 250 new burial spaces for Newham's Muslim community at a site in Plaistow. They have also expressed willingness to offer an additional 600 spaces if demand is particularly high.
Not only did the NMBA secure the much-needed plots of land, but it also built relationships with key organisations and placed faith-based community needs at the forefront of decision-making to facilitate inclusive and sustainable burial provisions.
The Muslim Council of Britain has commended the NMBA, saying, "Muslim communities organising to meet local needs is what a healthy, engaged society looks like, and it's exactly the kind of civic participation we want to see more of across the UK."
Quantity of burial space isn't the only issue the NMBA is advocating for; the quality of these spaces is equally important in ensuring they fulfil the faith-sensitive needs of Newham's Muslim community.
Some of these requirements include using virgin (previously unused) land for burial plots, orienting graves towards Mecca, and providing on-site ritual facilities.
Over the next 12-year period, an estimated 13,652 burial plots will be required in Newham, with at least 10,452 needing to be on virgin ground, primarily to serve Muslim and Jewish faith requirements.
The numbers are certainly alarming. But what the Newham Muslim Burial Association has shown is that this crisis doesn't mean Newham residents have no choice but to watch the clock until 2032; instead, they can organise right now within their communities to help make the changes they need to see.
As Green councillor Ibrahim Alom puts it: "For us, this isn't about the council deciding everything from the top down. It's about working alongside organisations like the NMBA and listening to residents to develop solutions that are practical, respectful and supported by the community."
A campaign run by volunteers, starting with a stack of surveys outside a mosque, can move a council and a private cemetery operator in the same year.
"What we've been able to achieve so far with the model of community organising shows that people will engage in issues that they care deeply about," one NMBA spokesperson said.
"This is not the end. We will continue to lobby until we see consistent, tangible outcomes."
It takes one conversation
One volunteer shared a touching story of her experience engaging with locals. One Friday, she walked into the packed women's section of a local mosque, waiting for prayer to begin, hoping to speak with people and raise awareness about this issue.
She was met with an unexpected obstacle: a language barrier. But she tried nonetheless. She managed to find one woman she could speak to about the crisis, who then translated it for the other women in the room.
That group translated it further until everyone understood it in their own language. Before long, the room was buzzing with women talking about their experiences with the burial process, confiding in each other about how difficult it is, and coming to the collective conclusion that this was a problem.
She said that this experience made her realise that "in this diverse community, there may be multiple languages, but one in common is the language of seeing and understanding injustice and inequality."
The chatter, the discussion and the open dialogue are what get things moving.
They helped Newham residents realise that this was an issue and that action was needed.
People engaged in whatever way they could, and for a grassroots community organisation like the NMBA, that was enough to get the ball rolling.
Majidah Chowdhury is a student and freelance journalist based in London