The small mosque would be based inside what is at the moment a vacant house

The first mosque in the Outer Hebrides will open by summer after the success of an online appeal.

Within 48 hours of the launch of a crowdfunding campaign more than £35,000 had been raised for the mosque in Stornoway, which had already been granted planning permission by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the Western Isles council.

The Just Giving site was set up by Aihtsham Rashid, 39, from Leeds, to help the Muslim community on the Isle of Lewis, whose relatively small numbers were swollen recently by the arrival of six refugee families from Syria.

The mosque’s construction is strongly opposed by some hardline Presbyterians, the most powerful religious group on the island. The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) urged its congregation to pray that “no