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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Ulster Unionists Block Masjid Construction |
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| Saffiyah |
| 01/14/03 at 12:01:44 |
| Today's issue of The Times features a story about how the construction of Northern Ireland's first-ever purpose-built masjid is being blocked by Ulster Unionist politicians. Please do read the story and if you feel that the Unionists are acting in an unfair and discriminatory manner then please email them or contact them. Remember to be firm but always polite. Their details are as follows: Email: uup@uup.org Address: 429 Holywood Road, Belfast BT4 2LN, UK Tel: +44 028 9076 5500 ISB Open Egroup http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-542149,00.html January 14, 2003 Unionists protest against building of Ulster mosque By David Lister, Ireland Correspondent THE construction of Northern Ireland’s first purpose-built mosque is being blocked by Unionist politicians who say that residents would be kept awake by “wailing” and that Muslims are plotting to destroy Christianity. For years a small Muslim community near Portadown, Co Armagh, has observed the antics of Orangemen during the annual marching season in the mid-Ulster town. Blending into the most famously hardline Protestant area of Northern Ireland, a province that remains 99.15 per cent white, according to the 2001 census, was always going to be tricky for the two dozen Muslim families who live here. Many of them work at the hospital or run takeaway food shops. But after years of minding their own business, they have spoken out after Unionist councillors objected to their plan for a mosque in a field outside Portadown. One councillor claimed that the development could pave the way for an al-Qaeda terrorist cell in the area. Fred Crowe, an Ulster Unionist councillor and former Mayor for the Craigavon area, said that residents in Bleary believed that their way of life would be threatened if the mosque were built. Mr Crowe said that encouraging Muslims to settle in Craigavon might open the door for militants. Although outline planning permission has been granted for the £200,000 mosque, which is to be funded by the Muslim community, final approval has been delayed after Unionist councillors voted for it to be reconsidered. Woolsey Smith, who represents Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party, said: “They say it’s not going to be an eastern-type mosque and there’ll not be the wailing noise calling these people to worship but we don’t know about that. I would be worried for residents in the area as to just what they will be confronted with.” Like other Unionist councillors, Mr Smith claims the mosque, proposed for a boggy field three miles outside Portadown, will cause sewage problems and heavy traffic on the country road leading to it, even though Muslims say that their community is at most 200-strong in Craigavon. Mohammad Yousaf, a retired draper who came to Northern Ireland 15 years ago, said that Muslims had used a community centre for their Friday prayer meetings since a makeshift mosque was burnt by vandals five years ago. Adam O’Boyle, a Roman Catholic who converted to Islam four years ago, said that the Province’s insularity meant that many people found it difficult to cope with other walks of life and different ethnic groups. Mohammad Ashraf, a Pakistani whose family came to Northern Ireland 27 years ago and who owns the land on which the mosque will be built, said: “We don’t want to fall out with anybody but we want the mosque. It will be a simple building that will blend in, with just one dome, not too many minarets. They’ll be no wailing, no call to prayer. Who is going to listen around here anyway? Cows?” |
| Re: Ulster Unionists Block Masjid Construction |
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| eleanor |
| 01/21/03 at 14:39:25 |
| [slm] With the Unionists they are fighting a losing battle >:( Anyone who parades down the Catholic areas on Orange Day is by nature a bigot and just mean. I mean, Orange Day is a celebration of the Battle where the English Protestants crushed the Irish Catholics. And they still celebrate that day and march through the Catholic areas... It's sick. |
| Re: Ulster Unionists Block Masjid Construction |
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| Nafisa |
| 01/22/03 at 09:51:00 |
| [slm] It's astounding just how insular and close minded these ppl are. It's almost laughable how scared they are of any kind of change. But it ends up being pitiful when they can't embrace ppl of other cultures and religions. |
| An Update |
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| Saffiyah |
| 01/22/03 at 14:06:33 |
| [quote]With the Unionists they are fighting a losing battle [/quote] It would seem so :( The Sunday Times January 19, 2003 Trimble steps into mosque dispute Liam Clarke THE Ulster Unionist leader is to meet councillors from Craigavon this weekend in an effort to defuse a dispute over the building of Northern Ireland’s first mosque in his constituency. Unionist councillors have opposed the mosque on planning grounds, leading to allegations of racial and religious bigotry. David Trimble believes the row is damaging the unionist cause and is being exploited in propaganda terms by Sinn Fein. The mosque is planned for a site near the town of Portadown, which is the heartland of Orangeism and has become a byword for intolerance and sectarian conflict because of the annual Drumcree standoff. Trimble said yesterday: “I have been disturbed by some of the issues raised, and I don’t mean the planning issues. As a result, I will be speaking to some of my party councillors over the weekend. I don’t want to comment further until I have discussed it with them.” Trimble is particularly perturbed by comments from Fred Crowe, a councillor and key local supporter in his Upper Bann constituency. Crowe has joined other unionist councillors on Craigavon council, which governs Portadown, in opposing planning permission. Crowe’s official reasons for opposing the mosque are the strain it would put on the sewage and road system but he has also criticised the Muslim community, accusing them of introducing an alien culture which involves noisy chanting and wailing that will disturb the locals. The councillor describes himself as a committed Christian who has travelled widely in the Islamic world and studied its belief system. He said: “Their (Muslims’) greatest enemy is Jesus Christ, and I have seen papers coming from them that it is their intention to wipe out Christianity.” He insists these views do not affect his judgment on the planning merits of the mosque. “I am only acting on behalf of the residents who are entitled to live in a normal manner without being interrupted,” he said. “I have fought this whole issue entirely on planning grounds. I can have personal views, but that is not going to affect me.” The Democratic Unionist party, led by Ian Paisley, takes a more cautious approach. Woolsey Smith, one of its councillors, said: “A few people have spoken to me about the issue of another culture coming into a country area. A mosque isn’t a typical type of church, but I do believe in freedom of worship, and I wouldn’t like to create a racist-type issue.” Smith said he had researched Muslim beliefs on the internet and recommended a fundamentalist Protestant site, sermonaudio.com, which turned out to be highly critical of Islam. It contained a prediction by Paisley of a final conflict that would be fought out between “Biblical Christianity” and “Mohammedanism-Judaism-Romanism”. The land for a purpose-built mosque was donated by Mohammed Ashraf, an elderly Pakistani who is one of 200 Muslims in the Craigavon area, after a temporary mosque was burned down by vandals. John O’Dowd, a local Sinn Fein councillor who has emerged as the mosque’s main political champion, admits there are genuine planning concerns. The area is served by what was once a quiet country road that now carries heavy traffic to shopping centres and would be strained further by traffic to the mosque. Most local houses have no connection to the main sewage system, and there are drainage problems from septic tanks which do not have adequate soak away systems. O’Dowd said: “Some of the residents have genuine concerns about road traffic and sewage in the area. My argument is that as local councillors we should be lobbying for better sewage and road systems instead of using it as a reason to block the Muslim community building a place of worship. Frankly some of the comments I’ve heard sound sectarian and racist. Craigavon should be setting an example as a multicultural, diverse community.” The mosque has already been given outline planning permission but is being blocked by unionists at the council. Local Muslims are bemused that it is only now, a year after it was first mooted, that problems are being raised. The fate of the mosque is likely to be decided at the end of next month during a meeting of Craigavon council. |
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