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September 24, 2006

UK: Battle Against Islamist Mega-Mosque In London

We reported on November 29 last year that a massive mosque, intending to be the largest mosque in Europe was being proposed to be built in London. The mosque was to be situated in a brownfield site adjacent to the site which will house the London 2012 Olympics. The proposed mosque was to be called the London Markaz, and would house 40,000 people, with room for 30,000 more in other rooms within the three storey complex.

The London Markaz, according to its architect Ali Mangera, was to cost £100 million ($180 million), and was under approval from Newham Council. The council said that it would be reviewing the scheme over the "coming year". The funding was expected to come from donations from the UK and abroad. Mangera's company, Mangera Yvars, is now stating that the scheme could cost three times as much.

The problem with the construction of the mosque is that it is the brainchild of the Islamist group the Tablighi Jamaat. This is an extreme Sunni group of the Deobandi school, the same school as the Taliban. Indeed, when Tablighi Jamaat had a meeting in May in the Waziristan region controlled by the Taliban, the Islamists granted a ceasefire to allow visitors to attend the rally.

Founded in 1927 in Mewat, India, by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi (1885 - 1944), the name of Tablighi Jamaat means "proselytising group" and it has been at the forefront of Islamic missionary activity, or "da'wah". Though it does not seek publicity, this group above all others has been responsible for the campaigns in Europe and beyond to make Muslim women wear the veil. During the 1980s, it was almost unheard of for young British born Muslim women wearing head coverings. Now it is almost compulsory.

Today, the Observer has reported that there is currently a campaign being mounted to prevent the London Markaz from being built.

The opposition has been assisted by revelations that some of the suspected terrorists who wished to use liquid explosives to blow up US-bound planes, which was revealed on August 10 (Operation Overt) had been followers of Tablighi Jamaat, such as 26-year old Assad Sarwar, as we mentioned on August 15. Another of the suspects, Waheed Zaman was head of the London Metropolitan University's Islamic Society and a member of Tablighi Jamaat.

In France, this group has been active since 1972, and is regarded by the French General Intelligence Agency (RP) as a negative influence within French prisons, recruiting incarcerated criminals into extremism.

There are other reasons to be cautious about such a large venue in London's capital for the group. There is another "Markaz" belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat which is based in Savile Town, in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Built in 1980 the Markazi mosque was built in part with Saudi funding. And two of the people who were visitors there were Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, who ended up blowing themselves up on July 7, 2005. With their co-religionists they killed 52 people traveling on London Transport.

Tablighi Jamaat is said to have sent hundreds of British young men to madrassas in Pakistan every year. Khan and Tanweer had visited madrassa in Pakistan, though there is nothing to suggest Tablighi Jamaat organised their trip.

Architect Ali Maghera says of the proposed London Markaz: "We've tried to develop a concept mosque that's inclusive. It will be not just for Muslims but for non-Muslims. In the present political climate it's important to create dialogue between different groups. This will be a radical new approach. Islamic architecture, philosophy, maths and science have been at the forefront of ideas and we're trying to go back to that idea."

He would not say who would be funding the complex. "The funding will come from a variety of sources....some from the UK, some from abroad.....If Tablighi Jamaat was anything like some people say they are, they wouldn't go for a building like this: it wouldn't make sense."

It certainly would make sense. Firstly it would be an opportunity to do missionary work. But it could also act as a center for radicalising young Muslims.

Tablighi Jamaat bought the Abbey Mill site in Newham more than a decade ago.

The main opposition to the mega-mosque is coming from Dr Patrick Sookhdeo of the Barnabas fund. He says: "The mosque would bring a radical transformation of the local community. The mosque is the centre of the community and people gravitate to it. You would end up having a completely Muslim community....It would create a separate district, a parallel society." Sookhdeo is an apostate from Islam, and he has warned of the dangers of increasing "Islamification" of Britain.

There are plans to establish the Markaz as part of an "Islamic village" in West Ham, Newham.

Dr Sookhdeo states: "I think, at the very least, we need to know much more about Tablighi Jamaat. Who runs it and what it is up to? And I think we need to ask whether we want an unequivocally
'Islamic Village' in London....and there ought to be some serious debate about it."

The Observer quotes a Muslim, Murad Qureshi, who is a member of the London Assembly, who is expressing his doubts about the project. "I would be concerned if the financing all came from Saudi Arabia because of the strong Wahhabist influence that comes from there. As for the planning application itself, l would like to see 50 per cent of the floor space given to women who normally don't get a look-in at mosques, let alone facilities."

When information became known that members of the suspected terror cell who planned the air terror outrage belonged to Tablighi Jamaat, the Sunday Telegraph provided a detailed study of the group. It stated that as well as Shehzad and Mohammed Sidique Khan, individuals such as the "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, Jose Padilla, and Lyman Harris, who sought to bomb the Brooklyn Bridge, and the "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh all had Tablighi connections.

Michael Heimbach, deputy chief of the FBI anti-terrorism division, said: "We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the US, and we have found that al-Qaeda used them for recruiting, now and in the past."

Marc Gaborieau, head of the School of Indian and South Asian Studies in Paris, states that Tablighi Jamaat's aim is "the conquest of the world". He states: "It is extremely secretive and suspicious of outsiders and no one at the centre of its activities has been fully identified or has spoken about how it operates. We know that it does not recognise national borders and that, despite its claim to be apolitical, it does have ties with politicians and branches of the military, particularly in Pakistan and Bangladesh."

When the founder of the group, Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi, died in 1944, his son Muhammed Yusuf expanded its activities until his own death in 1965.

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo states of the group: "It operates in every sense as a secret society in this country (Britain), as much as elsewhere. Its meetings are held behind closed doors. We don't know who attends them. How much money it has. It publishes no minutes or accounts. It doesn't talk about itself. It is extremely difficult to penetrate."

In Britain its activities are run from the Markazi mosque in Dewsbury, and most of its European operations are coordinated from here. It has charities which it runs. One of these is the Anjuman-E-Islahul Muslimeen which is launching the fund-raising for the London based Markaz. This charity of itself does not have enough funds to pay for the project. Its reported annual income is 500,000 ($950,387) per annum. Currently this group is in advanced discussion with the London Development Agency (LDA) concerning the construction of the mega-mosque. The pro-Islamist mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, supports the building of the Markazi in Newham.

There are serious accusations against the group. In the Philippines, the government has accused Tablighi Jamaat of using Saudi money to fund Islamic extremism. In Morocco, the government claims that its native terrorists hide behind the Tablighi, "to hide their identity on the one hand, and to influence these groups and their policies on the other."

Yet in much of the Muslim world, this group is regarded as above reproach, and is regarded as a fine proponent of "da'wah".

In the Winter 2005 edition of Middle East Quarterly, Alex Alexiev, vice-president for research at the Institute for Security Policy in Washington DC, compiled a dossier on the group's historical associations with extremism and terrorism.

In Pakistan, where the group is viewed highly, Nawaz Sharif (prime minister 1990-1993 and 1997-1999) has been instrumental in promoting them. Sharif's father was a member of the group, and in 1990, Sharif promoted a Tablighi member, Javed Nasir, to the head of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The recent debacle concerning Musharraf's statement about the US official, Richard Armitage, making a threat to "bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age" was actually created by a Tablighi Jamaat supporter, states the Pakistan Daily Times. In 2000 when this comment was said to have been made, the head of ISI was Lt Gen Mahmood Ahmed, who mistranslated the statement. Ahmed now sports a long white beard and has "gone Tableeghi".

Tablighi members plotted to overthrow the government of Benazir Bhutto, and in 1995, several Tablighi-linked military personnel and civilians tried to mount a coup, which was crushed by the army.

Some of its funding happens through the World Muslim League, a Saudi group which financed the building of the Dewsbury Markaz and headquarters.

The group is linked to acts of terrorism. Two French members of Tablighi Jamaat, states Alexiev, were among gunmen who carried out the attack upon the Asni Hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco on August 24, 1999. Two Spanish tourists were killed.

Another member of Tablighi Jamaat in Morocco was sentenced to death on July 12 2003. This individual, Ilamado Yusef Fikri, was head of a terror group called Salafia Jihadia or At-Takfir wal-Hijrah. He confessed in open letters to a newspaper to personally killing two individuals for being "against Islam". His group was connected to those who had carried out the Casablanca bombings of 16 May 2003, in which 45 people died.

For more details on Tablighi involvement with extreme branches of Islam and acts of terrorism, please see Mr Alexiev's article.

One thing is certain. This group is not to be trusted. Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, is expected to bulldoze any opposition to the construction of this mosque. Livingstone has more loyalty to extremists such as the Muslim Brotherhood, in the form of its spiritual leader Yusef al-Qaradawi, than he does to the people of London whom he mendaciously claims to represent. People in London should write to the London Development Agency and ask the necessary questions - who is funding the London Markaz? What is the purpose of the mosque? Does West Ham need an "Islamic village"?

Appeasement to Islam should not happen at the best of times, but to appease those who state that they do not respect national boundaries or democracies should never be encouraged.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 24, 2006 7:20 PM

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