UK Mosque Braves Bad Publicity

[N.O.R.F]

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?"

 

sourse

[chubacka]

v.interesting...Alahmdulliah they got the mosque inshallah Allah will continue to aid them in the coming years and all the muslims.

 

Ameen