A symbol of religious understanding and tolerance

Submitted by moemen (United Kingdom), Aug 23, 2007 at 08:15

As someone who has lived in britain most of their life- even though I was born in egypt - I still feel that the level of tolerace and understanding shown by the british public as a whole is unique in europe, and this mosque is the perfect example of this. Think of it this way; if this mosque was built outsiders- especially muslims- will see that muslims here in britain are generally respected and well treated, even if the media owners decide to continue to bash us. It would certainly improve the british image in the eyes of the islamic world.

I understand concerns about extremism but I want to point out 2 things; the Tablighi Jamaat is 99% of the time an extremely peaceful, traditional, simple group, and any extremists who may have gone through it at one point left it very quickly because it leaves little room inside it for extremism. If you choose not to believe me then for your own sake go to their nearest centre and see for yourself what these people do.

Secondly, I believe that just as the churches are regulated (not anyone can go up and say what they like in church, there must be approval from the central authority of the church first)- mosques should be as well. Extremism harms muslims as much as they harm anyone else since we live together here and the lies which extremists say are about our own religion. If there was a central regulatory authority (which there isn't, mosques are on the whole independent with the exception of few of cities), it would be harder for the extremist (and wrong) voice to reach the microphone. The government should cooperate more with muslim authroities and vice versa to achieve this- just as there is a bit of government control in islamic countries there should be some here- freedom of speech has limits (called the law)

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