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Friday 5 December 2008

Ken’s mega-mosque will encourage extremism

Irfan al-Alawi and Stephen Schwartz warn that the Olympic mosque has been conceived by Islamic radicals, supported by politically correct politicians, and will add to divisions in Britain

In traditional cult style, new recruits to Tabligh from Western Europe or North Africa are routinely sent to Pakistan for intensive indoctrination. The aim of Tabligh is to unify and segregate ‘pure’ Muslims from their neighbours. In London, Abdul Khaliq, the Tabligh representative and Markaz mosque director, has declared, ‘We would like to think that the Olympic authority will use it as the Islamic quarter of the 2012 Games’ — that is, as a separatist zone, an ‘Islamic village’.

When the mega-mosque proposal was made public, Muslims in Newham complained that it would increase tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims. A group called Sunni Friends of Newham, headed by Asif Shakoor, complained that the Tabligh effort would discriminate against non-Tabligh Muslims — and alienate Christians and others. Shakoor accused Tabligh of ‘radicalising the younger generation’ and demanded that his co-religionists in the neighbourhood take a stand against it. The pressure group gathered 2,500 signatures for a petition against the Markaz — but then fell silent. Sunnis in Newham now profess indifference about the project, apparently as a result of pressure from radicals.

The purging of anti-Tabligh views from the east London Muslim community has been helped by Ken Livingstone’s endorsement of the Markaz mosque. The enthusiasm of the Mayor of London is shared by the Thames Gateway Development Corporation, which means, presumably, that public financing will contribute a major share to completion of the mosque. Among Muslims, rumour has it that the mayor himself will open the building, rather than an Islamic dignitary.

London does not lack distinguished houses of Muslim worship. Not long ago the London Central (or Regent’s Park) mosque, with its golden dome, was considered one of the most impressive in Western Europe. But it was built in 1978, and accommodates only 2,000 in its prayer hall. Then came the Saudi-backed Wahabi facility, the London Muslim Centre, which opened in 2004 in east London, with capacity for 10,000 at prayer. Even with its Saudi–Wahabi financing, the LMC drew on public monies for its erection. And, of course, London is also known for radical preaching at the Finsbury Park mosque.

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