Don’t call’em fellow! Continuance from yesterday. EFL
Members of the Ahmadi community will today inaugurate what they describe as the largest mosque complex in western Europe, able to accommodate more than 10,000 worshippers. The building, a few miles from the community’s first London centre in Putney, south-west London, built nearly 80 years ago, is expected to be packed with devotees from around the world for the inaugural prayers to be held by the worldwide supreme head of the community, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad.
| Ready for the sour grapes now? |
But Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said the community had exaggerated its numbers and influence. He argued that it should not even use the word mosque to describe the building. "They can call their place of worship by any name except for a mosque because that is for Muslims," he said. "They are outside the fold of Islam."
| "They only think they're Muslims! We decide who's a Muslim around here, and it ain't them!" |
Rafiq Ahmed Hayat, the [Ahmadi] community’s British president, said: "Islam has come under a lot of criticism. One of the things we want to do is redress this imbalance. The basic tenet of Islam is that of peace and the tenet of this mosque is to propagate that tenet throughout the world. We will release some white doves to symbolise peace."
I’ve got nothing against this group or the building of their mosque. They wanted it, they raised the cash for it, and there’s no reason to suspect they’re going to cause trouble.
| I think we should hire some imams from them and the Sufis to minister to the nutballs we've got stashed at Guantanamo, myself... |
|