NEW YORK TIMES: CLITHEROE, England — On a chilly night this winter, this pristine town in some of Britain’s most untouched countryside voted to allow a former Christian church to become a mosque.
The narrow vote by the municipal authorities marked the end of a bitter struggle by the tiny Muslim population to establish a place of worship, one that will put a mosque in an imposing stone Methodist church that had been used as a factory since its congregation dwindled away 40 years ago.
The battle underscored Britain’s unease with its Muslim minority, and particularly the infiltration of terrorist cells among the faithful, whose devotion has challenged an increasingly secular Britain’s sense of itself.
Britain may continue to regard itself as a Christian nation. But practicing Muslims are likely to outnumber church-attending Christians in several decades, according to a recent survey by Christian Research, a group that specializes in documenting the status of Christianity in Britain. Old Church Becomes Mosque in Uneasy Britain by Jane Perlez
Mark Alexander
6 comments:
Western governments are far too weak to insist on reciprocation.
Mark - I read somewhere that only 2% of Britons attend church on a regular basis and that this church building previously had been converted into a factory. However, one would hope that former churches would be converted to museums or art gallaries.
I don't like seeing a venerable old church converted to a mosque any more than you, but if the neighborhood is filling up with Muslims, wouldn't they build a mosque nearby in any case?
Eleanor:
Yes, I suppose they would. But it goes against the grain to turn a church into a mosque. It's like being vanquished.
Clitheroe is close to Blackburn Nelson and Burnley. All relitivly poor areas with a high proportion of Muslems.
Clitheroe has a low Muslem population and is a better area if you go of property prices.
Approximatly 20 Muslems want to raise £1 250 000 for an exclusive building which is far behond their means. What is the motive Personal gain a place in Heaven with 77 Virgins stirring racial hatred Your guess is as good as mine.
Hello Les
They shouldn't have much trouble getting the money. Saudi Arabia will surely be willing to finance their project!
Why blame Islam?
Individuals, not religions, carry out inhuman acts.
Islam is a religion of peace, accepted and practiced by more than 1.25 billion people worldwide. It is the fastest-growing religion in the world, and if it was what some critics claim, why should the people from all walks of life from around the world keep embracing Islam? Where is the sword now?
In Islam, a person has the right to defend himself, his family, his country or his neighbor(s), which justifies the resistance being offered by the people of Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir and Palestine, to attacks on their soils by the so-called liberators, who are actually the occupiers.
The Holy Qur’an clearly states that if a person saves one life, it’s as if he saved humanity, and if a person kills one human being, it’s as if he killed humanity.
What is happening in the enslaved Muslim countries is a natural reaction to occupation, bombings, killing and terrorizing of innocent civilians (children, old men and women), rapes, in addition to looting of resources, national antiques and artifacts, above all the destruction of their property by the occupiers.
Terror breeds terror.
We assure those who bash Islam that if there was no occupation in this world by foreign invaders, there would be no resistance – the so-called terror.
We would like those who criticize Islam to explain the following acts committed by the Christians on Jews, other Christians and Muslims alike, throughout history:
- Hundreds of thousands of Muslim men, women and children killed by the crusaders, who were Christians.
- Inquisition of Jews and Muslims from Spain by Queen Isabella, a Christian.
- Millions of people killed by the European and American Christians during the two world wars and the civil wars.
- Atrocities committed on millions of Jews and Christians by Adolph Hitler, a professed Christian.
- Hundreds of thousands of Christians killed every year by the Irish Christians, including the British and the IRA, both Catholics and Protestants, during the past few centuries. Why they are not blamed to be “Christian Terrorists, or Catholic Terrorists, or Protestant Terrorists?”
Both of them believe in Jesus Christ, who told them to turn the other cheek, and both of them believe in the same Lord, Who commanded that “Thou shall not kill.” Period.
- Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, in the United States of America, was a Catholic. Are all Catholics terrorists?
For more than sixty (60) years, the Zionists are actively involved in the genocide of a whole nation, killing a number of Muslims in the occupied territories of Palestine on a daily basis with machine guns, missiles from helicopters, tanks, and bombs from F16s, under the watch of the western countries, the so-called champions of the human rights. How do you explain that?
Just by labeling the freedom fighters as terrorists and launching another holocaust on the poor Palestinians as revenge will not wipe out the crimes or the guilt of Hitler! Where are the justice, equality, freedom, and above all the human tights of Palestinians, dead or alive, propagated by these champions of human rights?
Last but not least, how do you explain the bombings, killings, lynching, murders and raping of innocent Native American Indians and black slaves (Afro-Americans) committed by the so-called Christians in the United States during the past 200 years of her history. What about them?
Will those filled with hate for Islam blame Christianity for the above inhuman acts by Christians in various parts of the world since its inception?
If not, then why are they blaming the religion of Islam for what is a natural reaction to occupation of Muslim countries by foreign invaders?
Most importantly, these folks should know that the three (3) great Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – have one common basis, and that is one God Almighty.
“All men (and women) are created equal, and we all are one nation under Almighty God,” is a clear cut statement according to the Holy Qur’an and is very well elucidated in the Constitution of these United States, one of the champions of the human rights.
Lastly, yet importantly, as brothers in humanity, we recommend those Islamophobists filled with prejudice to get life and an education in the history of Islam and Muslims, before they dare to write nasty letters, articles, and news releases, using out of context verses from the Holy Qur’an and distorted statements from the true traditions of our Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), full of personal, ingrain hate and vendetta against Islam and Muslims.
We would be pleased to provide anyone with free copies of the Holy Qur’an and Islamic literature in English or any other language, which would help them to understand the truth about Islam and Muslims and get rid of all hate from their systems, God willing.
May God Almighty show the light to all those, who believe in one mankind, as children of Adam and Eve, hence brothers and sisters, no matter what they believe in, Amen.
"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."
- Samuel P. Huntington (author The Clash Of Civilizations)
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