Some 1700 Church of England churches alone have closed since 1969./ nearly 1600 mosques across Britain. OPENED . , WHY ?
kangarooistan
they actually READ these links , they will never understand
www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm
kanga
=====
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UK Mosque Braves Bad Publicity
By Halima Columbo, IOL Correspondent
LANCASHIRE - With no less than 1600 mosques across Britain, the
small
Muslim community in the pretty market town of Clitheroe, Lancashire,
never imagined getting a planning permission for one more would make
international headlines.
"The phone has not stopped ringing, even CNN got in contact with us,
and one company even wants to follow us round and make a
documentary,"
Farouk Hussain of the Medina Islamic Education Centre , a campaigner
for the mosque, told IslamOnline.net.
The 300-strong Muslim community attracted the attention of local and
world media after getting approval to turn a factory in the centre of
town - that was a chapel six decades ago - into a mosque.
The permission was carried by the narrowest of margins after a
thirty-
year struggle by the local Muslims to obtain a place of worship, in
the face of vociferous opposition by many of the town's 15000
residents.
"In the run-up to the planning meeting, I counted three pages of
letters in the local paper, and eventually they refused to print any
more letters," Hussain recalled.
"There are those who will always be opposed to it, the people who
support it are in the hundreds," agreed Sheraz Arshad, another
campaigner for the mosque.
"The vast majority may not be against it, but they are sitting on the
fence, they are very uncomfortable about it being in their back
yard."
Much of the press interest is being focused on the fact that the
building chosen for the mosque, is a former chapel immortalised in a
painting by the artist famous for scenes of Lancashire life, LS
Lowry,
entitled 'A Street in Lancashire'.
However, the chapel doors have been closed to Christian worship since
1940, and it later became a factory exporting headscarves to the
Middle East.
Unaccepted
As we climbed the stairs inside the building towards the future
prayer
hall, we crunched over broken glass.
"There have been windows broken on three separate occasions since the
New Year; it is quite mild compared to what might have happened,"
Hussain said.
"The Medina Education Centre was firebombed, windows put through,
there has been vandalism, a car was set on fire outside the centre in
the last four or five years."
The Muslim community has not always felt accepted in Clitheroe,
despite a presence there since the 1960s.
The terraced house that they use for educating children and holding
functions has been subject to violent attack on a number of
occasions.
They have suffered racial abuse and there are currently two far-right
parties contesting the local elections, both opposed to the mosque
plan.
Opposition to the mosque has been focussed around fears that the
mosque would encourage more Muslims into the area.
"People said that property prices would fall, and that hundreds of
people from Blackburn will come, increasing traffic, and people will
park all over the place," Geoff Jackson, one of the mosque's most
active supporters, told IOL.
Church Vs Mosque
The press have been interpreting the mosque debate as symbolic of a
battle for the very soul of Britain itself and the state of religion
where Christianity appears to be in decline whilst Islam thrives.
The worry appears to be that whilst mosques are being erected, with
35
mosques now in neighbouring Blackburn, church-going seems close to be
dying out in Britain.
"They are using this as a means to stir some of the Christian's
consciences about places of worship converted to other uses,"
reasoned
Arshad.
"It is a point, churches are closing and it is becoming much more of
a
secular society, and I would much rather that churches were used by
Christians, for I would rather that people would be of a faith rather
than of no faith," he added.
"Faith, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, whatever, gives people a
sense of morality, a sense of love, peace, justice and tolerance
towards each other."
Churches and chapels have been closing their doors in epic numbers.
Some 1700 Church of England churches alone have closed since 1969.
According to the umbrella Muslim Association of Britain there are
nearly 1600 mosques across Britain.
Support
Despite the vociferous opposition, many people of faith support the
mosque plan and feel it is unfair they should have a place to worship
God while Muslims did not.
"What encouraged a lot of our supporters to identify with our
struggle
was their Christian faith," Arshad said.
"Geoff Jackson was a real rock, a mentor, and a very committed
Methodist."
Hussain agreed.
"We went through some really low times... but Geoff was there for us
'Come on Lads, we're going to do this!' "
When they finally got the planning permission, Hussain knew whom to
thank.
"On the night, of all the people in the room, I went to Geoff and I
gave him a big hug, and I was crying and Geoff was crying, and he
stayed with us all night, 'I told you we'd do it', he said."
Jackson explained that people from many different faith groups wrote
letters to the local paper and outnumbered the opposition.
Besides himself, he named the Reverend Norma Johnson of the United
Reform Church and Reverend Rodney Nicholson from St Paul's Church as
very strong supporters of the right to pray.
"To me it was a matter of social justice. They have a right to pray
in
their local community and they were denied that right."
Arshad insisted that had it not been to Jackson and like-minded
supporters, include some Jews, they would not have been able to
realise a long-cherished dream.
"One guy was Jewish, he supported us throughout the appeal and gave
evidence for us when we were racially abused," he explained.
"I think he empathised with us because his family went through the
same in the 1930s when they wanted land to build a synagogue, and
they
were experiencing anti-Semitism, and they wouldn't sell them land
because they were Jewish, but a Christian gentleman bought the land
for them."
Shinning Muslims
Jackson praised Arshad and Farouk for their service to the local
community.
"Those two guys are terrific. They are a credit to their local
community. If you wanted to pick two people out for services to the
local community you would pick those two," he said.
"They are sterling lads, local lads who have contributed to the
community in many ways."
He was also impressed with the active role of local Muslim women,
contrary to the common perception of Muslim women as having little
voice.
"They turned out in force, at a vigil outside the gates of Clitheroe
Castle subsequent to the hearing and at the actual planning hearing,"
Jackson recalled.
"It was very successful in persuading people to support them."
Hussain helps kids learn cricket and Arshad founded the first mixed
scout troop in the country, which has 24 children of both English and
Asian heritage.
They also help run the local radio station and have their own
programme, "Have Your Say", in which they have encouraged people to
phone in and discuss their concerns about the mosque.
"In the Medina Education Centre, we have the scouts meetings, the
Community Cohesion meetings, and the interfaith meetings. We hold the
valley against racism meetings there," Hussain explained.
Model Mosque
They assert that the aim of the mosque, and any mosque for that
matter, is to be open and accessible for all people, Muslim and non-
Muslim, even those just passing through, seeking spiritual comfort or
guidance.
"People have all sorts of needs, social, psychological, spiritual,
fear of violence, there is drug misuse, there are isolated,
vulnerable
and lonely people, religion is something to give people comfort in
God's love and Mercy, and the mosque should be equipped in a way that
allows people to come in and get that," the maintain.
"We are not trying to invent anything new, what we are trying to
establish is what a mosque was at the time of Prophet Muhammad (peace
and blessings be upon him), that the essence of a mosque is that it
was a hub for the community, that is where the key decisions were
taken and that is where the men women and children came together and
actually lived out their faith in a spiritual and a social and
recreational sense, so that is what we want to re-establish."
The Muslim activists, looking for financial and other support, are
also keen to ensure that the mosque would be a model for future
mosques, promoting interfaith harmony and working for the betterment
of the community as a whole, both Muslim and non-Muslim.
"If you say that you're a person of faith then you need to live out
your faith that means not just serving your own community but serving
all human beings, after all we are all brothers and sisters in
humanity," maintains Hussain.
"The (mosque) building will give us far more scope to develop our
plans to another level, we feel that it was set aside for us, it is a
beautiful building in the centre of town, we believe it was our
destiny and it was meant to be.
"Many years ago we would have been happy with a terraced house, but
this will enable us to continue the work that we are engaged in at
the
moment."
Plans include maintaining the look of the building externally and the
development of a car park with permits for those who live more than a
mile from the mosque to meet residents concerns about parking.
The building is on three floors.
On the ground floor it is hoped to provide wudu' (ablution)
facilities, a community café, crèche facilities and a disabled lift.
The middle floor will hold the prayer hall as a communal space for
both men and women.
On the top floor they hope to develop a community partnership
facility.
"This will be a community hall, a stage area, chairs and tables and
allow people to come together and learn about each other and
undertake
projects for the benefit of the community," explained Arshad.
Inspired by our faith, he said, we want to allow other people to come
and get involved in delivering those projects for the betterment of
the community as a whole.
"I think that as British Muslims living in this society, and for our
children and our children's children, that's the way forward,"
believes the young Muslim activist.
"If you look at Islam as a religion in terms of inviting people to it
and educating them about what it is, then going out there and
evangelising people about it is not the right way, the right way is
by
inviting them in, and letting them see who we are.
"Do we come and sit in this section of the building and build bombs,
or do we sit down and plan improvements for young people, for elderly
people, for people living in rural communities?"
kangarooistan
Amazing to think some christians and JEWS still wonder why , until
they actually READ these links , they will never understand
www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm
kanga
=====
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------