While the death toll in the Grenfell Tower apartment building fire could rise significantly, it is likely Muslims who were awake in the early morning for Ramadan saved lives of fellow residents. The fire in the 24-storey building broke out around 1am on Wednesday (local time) while many of the residents were sleeping. That was save for Muslims observing Ramadan who were reported to have knocked on people's doors trying to wake them to get them out of the building.There are reports the fire alarms and sprinklers weren't working, so their efforts would have been the first sign for many residents they were in danger. "Muslim boys saved people's lives," one local woman told HuffPost UK. "They ran around knocking on people's doors. Thank God for Ramadan." In a widely shared video on social media, another woman praises the work of those who helped save residents. "If it wasn't for all these young Muslim boys around here helping us, coming from mosques, a lot more people would have been dead," she tells a group crowding around her.
Twenty-year-old Khalid Suleman Ahmed told HuffPost UK he'd recently moved into the tower with his aunt on the eighth floor. He says he'd normally be asleep, but he'd woken for Suhur, the meal before Muslims begin fasting for Ramadan during daylight hours. "I woke my aunty up, then got clothes on and started knocking on neighbours' doors. Every house opened except two - I saw the other guy later on so only 1 family unaccounted for. My next door neighbour was fast asleep," he said. Twelve people have been confirmed dead, with around 70 taken to hospital and many more missing. And while praise was being heaped on those who raised the alarm, far-right group Britain First protested near a London mosque.Leader Paul Golding claimed they were close to being "physically attacked" by a group of Muslims for "the heinous crime of standing on a British Pavement and filming". "We've just gone into the Whitechapel area of London with some leaflets and we've walked past the East London Mosque and we were very quickly surrounded by an ever-increasing mob of Muslims and white liberals screaming abuse," he says in a Facebook video. He claimed people threw things at them and spit on them. But that's a vastly different version of events to what the mosque claims.
"The far-right Britain First group turned up again outside the East London Mosque today, as the congregation prepared for midday prayers and collected donations for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire," a statement from the mosque reads. "Far-right extremist Paul Golding and his cronies have targeted the local Muslim community in the past. We condemn their attempts to create tension in our communities." They also pointed out that the group broke traffic law while filming by parking on a zig-zag next to a pedestrian crossing and blocking the cycle lane. - 'Thank God For Ramadan': How Muslims In London Helped Sound The Alarm About Huge Fire
