Keighley’s most prominent place of Muslim worship wants to become the town’s first “fairtrade mosque”.

The Markazi Jamia Mosque, in Emily Street, kicked off its campaign to promote ethical trading by linking up with Keighley school pupils.

The Year 9 University Academy Keighley citizenship students invited mosque committee members to participate in a Dragons’ Den-style event. This was designed to convince the committee members to commit themselves to following fairtrade principles.

The youngsters urged the committee – led by mosque community relations and education officer Mohammed Saleem – to use fairtrade tea and coffee, introduce other ethically sourced products, and promote fairtrade during mosque events.

Mr Saleem said: “We had no hesitation in agreeing to follow the goals that would allow us to become Keighley’s first ever fairtrade mosque.

“More than a billion rural farmers across the globe work all day to produce the food we eat, but don’t earn enough to feed their families, send their children to school or afford quality healthcare.

“The prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said ‘the best of people are those that bring most benefit to the rest of mankind’. As Muslims we should think deeper about where food comes from, and about whether any person or animal has been exploited during its production.”