England: Opening of giant Mosque?
The Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary organization, has acquired a plot of land to build the largest religious edifice in Great Britain: a mosque for 40,000 faithful, as well as a school, exhibition areas and an Islamic garden, on an area of 180,000 square meters.
The movement was founded between 1923 and 1927 in India, in the province of Mewat, by Muhammed Ilyas Kandhalawi (1885-1944) in order to help converts from Hinduism, to become “complete Muslims”, and has been established successively in Muslim countries and industrialized countries all over the world since 1940. Its members adhere strictly to the religious laws. Only members of the Kandhalawi family provide the direction of the organization and its financing is kept secret.
The plan has met with strong opposition from two Christian organizations, the Barnabas Fund and the Christian Peoples Alliance. Alan Craig, a member of the latter group, has stated that the dominant presence of a community constituting a single religion would be a source of imbalance, pointing out that “Tabligi Jamaat asserts it is an apolitical organization opposed to violence, but members of the security services and some researchers have a different opinion.” Also, he added, given that “the organization wants to transfer its European headquarters to London, I am asking that an independent inquiry be carried out.”
The Barnabas Fund, a Christian charity organization established in several Muslim countries has demanded an inquiry into its financing, according to the weekly The Observer. Patrick Sookhdeo, the organization’s director, has said: “The mosque would bring a radical transformation to the locality. It is the center of the community and people would gravitate towards it. It would end up as an entirely Muslim community, this would create a separate district, a parallel society.”
