UK: WHEN IS BANNING A MOSQUE NOT ISLAMOPHOBIC?

Scores of Muslims cheered in the council’s packed public chamber when the decision to ban the Ahmadiyya mosque was announced...

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Intn'l Desk

Source: The Spittoon blog | December 8, 2009

By Abdul Hamid Al Manchesteri

Plans to convert an old, disused city-centre warehouse into a mosque for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Walsall were rejected after more than 800 complaints were received.

A man protesting the mosque development plans was jubilant:

    “It is a victory for the people, there are enough places of worship in the area. There was not a single person who supported it.

    Something like that should be to serve the community but none of the local residents were going to benefit from it. It is great that common sense has prevailed.”

Another man couldn’t contain his joy:

    “We are happy the right decision has been made. It would have been a public nusiance and is a relief.”

Surely these comments could not have been made by anyone other than the Islamophobic bigots from the BNP, SIOE or the EDL? Actually, they were not.

The quoted comments were by Zia-ul-Haq and the imam of the nearby Aisha Mosque, Imam Saeed, respectively. Both of whom are Muslims opposed to the Ahmadiyya mosque. Like them, most of the protestors opposed to the plans for the new mosque were local Muslims.

When the Swiss put the question of building minarets to a referendum, the outcry at the result of this instance of active democracy turned into an international sensation. The Swiss were rightly criticised for their overtly reactionary decision. The Dawn newspaper in Pakistan called the referendum an act of “extreme Islamophobia”. Khurshid Ahmad, vice president of Jamaat-e-Islami, said the action of the Swiss was “an effort to provoke Muslims and prompt a clash between Islam and the West”. As if the Jamaat-e-Islami ever needed a pretext to prompt a clash between Islam and the West.

Muslim protestors who opposed the proposed Ahmadiyya mosque in Walsall countered the plans on the grounds that it would cause “congestion”. And members of the Walsall Council committee seemed only too willing to hear their pleas. Scores of Muslims cheered in the council’s packed public chamber when the decision to ban the Ahmadiyya mosque was announced:

    "Members of the development control committee refused the scheme on a number of grounds including it being in an unsuitable location and would cause traffic congestion."

Had this been a Sunni mosque, this incident would have been seized by Bunglawala [see Editor's note below] and friends and projected as a mini-Switzerland playing out in the “Islamophobic” badlands of Walsall. The Daily Mail would have been hard pressed disguising it’s glee at the chance of another photo-opportunity of angry Muslims. And it would have been entered as another serious provocation of Islamophobia by Bob Pitt at the pitifully sectarian Islamophobia-Watch.

But when it’s an Ahmaddiyya Mosque being refused planning permission, we have none of that. Instead we have images of happy Muslim community members, and cheers, jubilation and relief all round.

So to answer the question posed in the title: When is banning a mosque not Islamophobic?

Answer: When it’s an example of majoritarian Muslim sectarianism against an Islamic religious minority.

Read here: When Is Banning a Mosque Not Islamophobic?

Editor's note: Ahmadiyya Times acknowledges that Inayat Banglawala has spoken out against the Non-Ahmadi Muslim's role and behavior in this situation. See his piece "Freedom of worship for Ahmadis", written for Guardian on December 8, 2009, [read here]. Also, this article by Abdul Hamid Al Manchesteri was updated to acknowledge the same at The Spittoon blog [read here].