« Indonesia: Muslims Disagree Over Banning Of Extremist Books |
| Book Review: The Blank Slate »
November 26, 2005
UK: Giant Mosque Planned By Extremists For London Olympics Site
The Sunday Times reports that a proposal has been put forward to erect a giant mosque next to the Olympic site, which should be open in time for the London Olympics of 2012.
The mosque has been suggested by Tablighi Jamaat ("proselytising group") an international Islamic missionary group. The mosque is intended by this group to house 40,000 people, with room for another 30,000 in adjacent buildings. The complex is seen as the "Muslim quarter" at the upcoming games.
The proposed complex will be called the London Markaz, and will be built on the site of an existing mosque. The new mosque will have three storeys, and will echo in its design the look of tents, according to Ali Mangera, the architect currently designing the edifice.
Newham council, who are responsible for the area, have said that they are considering approving the mosque proposal, and said "The application will be finalised over the next year."
The cost of the construction is said to be more than 100 million pounds, ($180 million) and it is expected to be financed from donations sought in the UK and abroad.
According to the Middle East Quarterly, Tablighi Jamaat was founded by a Deobandi cleric and scholar Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi (1885 - 1944), in 1927, in Mewat, India. The organisation, being Deobandi in origin, is Sunni, and its founding members were intolerant of other Muslims, and especially Shi'ites. In Pakistan, its proselytisers are currently allowed to preach in the army's barracks.
When Benazir Bhutto, less sympathetic to Islamist causes, returned to the premiership in 1993, Tablighis conspired to overthrow her government. In 1995, the Pakistani army thwarted a coup attempt by several dozen high-ranking military officers and civilians, all of whom were members of the Tablighi Jamaat and some of whom also held membership in Harakat ul-Mujahideen, a U.S. State Department-defined terrorist organization. Some of the confusion over Tablighi Jamaat's apolitical characterization derives from the fact that the movement does not consider individual states to be legitimate. They may not become actively involved in internal politics or disputes over local issues, but, from a philosophical and transnational perspective, the Tablighi Jamaat's millenarian philosophy is very political indeed. According to the French Tablighi expert Marc Gaborieau, its ultimate objective is nothing short of a "planned conquest of the world" in the spirit of jihad.The Times mentions that the group is suspected of terrorist instigation. Its members helped the foundation of the terror group Harakat ul-Mujahideen, responsible for hijacking an Air India plane in December 1998 and murdering a busload of engineers in Karachi, Pakistan, on May 8 2002.
Tablighi Jamaat has always adopted an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam, but in the past two decades, it has radicalized to the point where it is now a driving force of Islamic extremism and a major recruiting agency for terrorist causes worldwide. For a majority of young Muslim extremists, joining Tablighi Jamaat is the first step on the road to extremism.The author of the MEQ article, Alex Alexiev, is vice president for research at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. He warns that there are an estimated 15,000 Tablighi misssionaries in the US, and they "present a serious national security problem". He blames al-Qaeda activities and recruitment to be a direct consequence of the group's teachings and ideologies, and concludes his essay with these words: "If the West chooses to turn a blind eye to the problem, Tablighi involvement in future terrorist activities at home and abroad is not a matter of conjecture; it is a certainty."
No wonder they want to erect a giant mosque and Islamic complex at the Olympic Games 2012.
And the multiculturalist appeasers in Newham council, assisted by the appeasing fools in Blair's government, will probably be jumping for joy to prove that Britain is tolerant of Islam by encouraging the construction of this proposed temple of terrorist ideology.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 26, 2005 11:44 PM
Comments
Extremist? No!!!
Fundamental? Yes!!! Fundamental about Islam.
You'd be very surprised that the people of tableegh (of which i am one of their prominent members) are not extreme at all.
Posted by: A.Majid at December 25, 2005 2:59 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)