Old Church Becomes Mosque in Uneasy Britain

[ElPunto]

New York Times

 

By JANE PERLEZ

Published: April 2, 2007

 

 

CLITHEROE, England — On a chilly night this winter, this pristine town in some of Britain’s most untouched countryside voted to allow a former Christian church to become a mosque.

 

The narrow vote by the municipal authorities marked the end of a bitter struggle by the tiny Muslim population to establish a place of worship, one that will put a mosque in an imposing stone Methodist church that had been used as a factory since its congregation dwindled away 40 years ago.

 

The battle underscored Britain’s unease with its Muslim minority, and particularly the infiltration of terrorist cells among the faithful, whose devotion has challenged an increasingly secular Britain’s sense of itself.

 

Britain may continue to regard itself as a Christian nation. But practicing Muslims are likely to outnumber church-attending Christians in several decades, according to a recent survey by Christian Research, a group that specializes in documenting the status of Christianity in Britain.

 

More conspicuous than ever in both the halls of power and in working-class neighborhoods, Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims, about 2.7 percent of the population, are at once alienated and increasingly assertive.

 

In Clitheroe, the tussle involved a passionate young professional of Pakistani descent coming up against the raw nerves of tradition-bound local residents.

 

“We’ve been trying to get a place of worship for 30 years,” said Sheraz Arshad, 31, the Muslim leader here, his voice rattling around the empty old Mount Zion Methodist Church that will house his mosque. “It’s fitting it is a church: it is visually symbolic, the coming together of religions.”

 

With a population of 14,500, a Norman castle and an Anglican church established in 1122, Clitheroe is tucked away in Lancashire County in the north. People here liked to think they represented a last barrier to the mosques that had become features in surrounding industrial towns. But Clitheroe had not bargained on the determination of Mr. Arshad, a project manager at British Aerospace. He is the British-born son of Mohamed Arshad, who came to Clitheroe from Rawalpindi in 1965 to work at the cement works on the town’s outskirts.

 

When his father died in 2000, leaving his efforts to establish a mosque for the approximately 300 Muslims unfulfilled, Mr. Arshad took up the challenge.

 

“I thought, why should I be treated any less well?” Mr. Arshad said. “One quarter of my salary goes in tax, too. I was driven to do the mosque.”

 

In all, Mr. Arshad and his father made eight applications for a mosque, and even proposed buying a modest terrace house on the edge of town to be used for worship. Mr. Arshad said he tried to buy land from the council but was rebuffed.

 

Often there was booing at council meetings, and, he said, cries of “Go home, Paki!”

 

The authorities’ official reasoning for the rejections was generally that a mosque would attract outsiders — a veiled reference to Muslims — to Clitheroe.

 

Letters to the local newspaper, The Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, warned that what had happened in Blackburn and Preston, two bigger nearby industrial towns with substantial Muslim populations, would happen to Clitheroe.

 

Mr. Arshad decided to get organized and demonstrate that he was a moderate Muslim who could take part in all the town’s affairs.

 

He formed an interfaith scout group — Beaver Scouts — that honored many religious occasions, including the Taoist and Jewish new years. He established the Medina Islamic Education Center as an interfaith group for adults, and persuaded the local council to allow the group to lead a key committee. He organized a series of lectures on global conflict that attracted important academics.

 

On Dec. 21, the night of the vote on the mosque, the council chambers overflowed with 150 people. The police were poised outside. The vote was 7 to 5 for the mosque; there was no violence.

 

“I went in resigned to the fact we would lose,” Mr. Arshad said. “In the end, it was very humbling.”

 

The church’s demarcation as a place of worship in the town’s planning records helped carry the day, said Geoffrey Jackson, chief executive of Trinity Partnership, a social welfare agency, and a Methodist who backed Mr. Arshad.

 

So did Mr. Arshad’s demeanor. “He’s a top lad, with a Lancashire accent, born and bred here, and educated at Clitheroe Grammar,” Mr. Jackson said.

 

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[FatB]

Though the misty clouds that bring the heavy rain, a trickle of light penetrates the darkened skies.... this is an example of wat we an reap though hard work and persistance.

[Miriam1]

Seriously this fella is an example! Mashallah

[ElPunto]

^He's a good guy though he tries a bit too hard to cater the townsfolk. Sad that it took this much to take over what had become an abandoned factory.

[Miriam1]

^Let's be realistic, people in small towns are exteremly suspicious of any changes, let alone changes that are being proposed by Muslims at this current time high tension with crazy media reporting. It takes lots of effort and he realizd that, it might not be pretty, might not cater to our high pride but its necessary to survive and succeed in these lands.

In my own neighbourhood, our local masjid commitee lost an effort to convert this old church into a new masjid, for years they were raising money, but it never seemed enough until the church decided that the building was no longer for sale and began services again. It all wasnt a waste, a better facility was bought, but even in a multi-cultural place like toronto, the fear of the "other" getting to close still exists, and that needs to be elimanted.

[Ameen]

Originally posted by Hayam:

... an effort to convert this old church into a new masjid...

Subhan'Allah, I recently heard a sheik talking briefly about the reasons why we witness some many churches being put up for sale and for the most part, being converted into the Houses of Allah. He said, "our youth are committed to the House of Allah and run to fill the lines therein but in their case (the Christians) their youth have stop coming to their churches and they now lack the support (and dedication) of the coming generation..." (I don’t know if you fully understood what I just wrote) but after you reflect on it, a person realizes that victory is coming and the Muslims need to be patient (inshallah).

 

And Allah knows best