British Muslim leaders have expressed their full support for plans by the Jamaat Al-Tabligh group to build a grand mosque beside the Olympic Park in East London, refuting allegations the group was preaching violence and extremism.
“If I have the funds and permission to build a mosque that houses one million people I’ll do it,” Anas Al-Tikriti, the former head of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), told IslamOnline.net over the phone from London.
The construction scheme, drawn up by the award-winning architects MYAA, envisages a complex containing a garden, school and prayer space for tens of thousands of worshipers.
Newham Council signed a memorandum of agreement in 2001 with Jamaat Al-Tabligh, which states it has “no objection in principle to . . . a major new, high-quality mosque.”
Tikriti said the Muslim group might be seeking to capitalize on the 2012 London Olympics “to build a mosque to house a large number of Muslims pouring from all the world over,” for the landmark event.
The prominent activist took issue with a group of Muslims who signed a petition opposing the building because it is being done by Jamaat Al-Tabligh.
The Times reported Monday, November 27, that 2,500 Muslims have signed a petition against the construction plan on claims that the group preaches extremism and violence.
Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former head of the umbrella Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), believes the anti-mosque petition is an attempt to divide the Muslims, estimated at nearly 1.8 million.
“The mosque is an important institution educating people and carrying out its functions,” he told IOL.
“We call on British Muslims to sign petitions supporting the building of the grand mosque,” said Dr. Abdel Majid Qatma, a physician and prominent Muslim leader in Britain.
“We will attract tens of thousands supporting the building of the mosque,” he said over the phone from London.
“We call on Muslims to publish counter-petitions successively in leading newspapers.”
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I am all for it, people will throw ridiculous allegations for no reason. So what if it’s the Tablighi Jamaat?