Why are some Christians so Islamaphobic?

I just received this chain email ... about the mosque in West Ham which is in the headlines in London.... I've reordered the sections so it makes sense sequentially ending with the responses I've made to the friend who sent it to me and to Alan Craig in Newham...

I find it alarming that Christians react in this way....

Apparently there is a SE London network of evangelicals at the root of it

Nick Wynne-Jones [mailto:nwwj@ccb.org.uk] is something to do with Christ Church Beckenham and has to bear responsibility for spreading what must be a false statement that Ken Livingstone is planning to use tax payer's money to build an enormous mosque costing an estimated 100M in the docklands

and nelsonp@ntlworld.com (see his disclaimer right at the bottom of his email)

I think they need a rebuke!

If you check the Evening Standard article (by Mira Bar-Hillel .. )
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23390637-details/Unelected+quango+to+decide+on+mosque+for+Olympic+site/article.do

they are very careful to limit it to the group has been accused of drawing young men towards an extremist version of Islam.

It's clearly been a Wikipedia approach... in the sense This section does not cite its references or sources.
But it is worth exploring for a more rounded view of Tablighi Jamaat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablighi_Jamaat





ORIGINAL EMAIL BEGINS
From: Nick Wynne-Jones [mailto:nwwj@ccb.org.uk] Sent: 28 March 2007 10:22 To: nelsonp@ntlworld.comSubject: FW: London Olympics & Mosque - please voteImportance: High
Dear Nelson
I have received this and thought it would be something on which members of your circulation list might wish to express their concern through voting.
Every blessing
Nick

(NO SOURCE IS GIVEN for this) I don't know if you have heard about this but Ken Livingstone is planning to use tax payer's money to build an enormous mosque costing an estimated 100M in the docklands. What do you think about it? Wouldn't it be better to spend the money on a new hospital or improved transport facilities?? Bigger than St Paul's! The plan is for the mosque to be so big that people flying in from all over the world for the 2012 Olympics will it see it as the biggest landmark in London, bigger than St Pauls, Westminster Abbey or Wembley Stadium

Take a second to cast your vote in The Evening Standard on-line poll to determine public opinion about whether a mega mosque should be built for the Olympics. The vote so far is 62 % in favour. It looks like the Muslim community is casting its vote in droves, and as usual the Christians are burying their heads in the sand....

After voting, forward this to as many people as you can. Here's the link: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/poll/poll-18791-details/ques-18669-id/%C2%A3100m+mosque:+Vote+now/poll.do


---------- THIS IS THE Forwarded message That came with the first email ----------
From: Nelson Pallister <nelsonp@ntlworld.com>Date: 28-Mar-2007 11:17
Subject: FW: London Olympics & Mosque - please voteTo: Nelson Pallister <nelsonp@ntlworld.com>

This is the 3rd petition notice I have received and this time the link works, so I am passing it on.
I was present recently at a debate in the House of Lords on Religious Freedom with particular reference to the right to change one's religion. Alan Craig, the Christian Alliance Councillor from Newham, was speaking on the issue of the mosque. He said he gets on well with Muslims and agrees with them on many issues. However, he is opposed to the mosque for the following reasons:

1. It is very close to the West Ham Football Ground which itself creates serious traffic congestion. Another even larger building with its attendant traffic generation will be very disruptive for the area.
2. A massive mosque right at the entrance to the Olympic Stadium would send a message to the world (think of all the TV coverage including views from the air) that Britain is now a Muslim nation.
3. There is already evidence of Muslims moving into the area to be near the mosque and this could create a ghetto-like area (contrary to Olympic principles).
4. The particular Muslim sect (linked to the Wahibi sect) takes an isolationist, separatist stance and has a history of radicalising young Muslims.
5. This sect has its UK HQ in Dewsbury where they have created a separatist parallel society and structure intent on imposing shari'a law in their part of the town. It has become quite intimidating for anyone not associated with the sect to even walk in the street.

Alan Craig said that in Newham 2500 had signed a petition against the mosque and many of those were in fact Muslims. Further questions that could be asked include:

How many women are there on the management committee?
How many Muslim women competitors are there in the Olympics?
How much of the funding for the sect comes from Saudi Arabia (not necessarily from the Government but from other sources there)?
Can people carry a Bible down Riyadh High Street? (There was recently a case where an Air Stewardess was not even allowed by a British airline to take her Bible with her when flying to Saudi Arabia.)

I am not sure about Ken Livingstone using taxpayers' money. Is this correct?

Nelson
I have undertaken to become a distribution point for information of interest to the Churches in Orpington and if appropriate to people in a wider area. I always distribute using the "bcc" option so that no-one's email address is passed on. People wanting to inform others of Inter-church events contact me and if I consider it appropriate, I pass the information on. I do so in good faith, expecting that those who initiate the communication will have ensured accuracy and that all other interests will have been considered. Occasionally I have information that applies to a wider audience than just Orpington and area and I will extend the distribution. If anyone does not want to receive these communications, please ask me to remove you from my distribution list. Please bear in mind, however, that removal from a list means that no communication relating to matters of even more limited interest may be sent to you.
Nelson D A Pallister 07956 237152 Fax: 01689 602961 Email: nelsonp@ntlworld.com

my response to the friend who sent it...

Dear A***
Please do not circulate this sort of thing assuming it is innocent Christian comment... there are political and possibly racist implications very near the surface. It is positively dangerous to egg on Christians and encourage their persecution complex in this way given the polarised nature of communities in Preston and Lancashire.

Alan Craig is an old acquaintance of mine from Newham. I believe Alan is an honourable and sincere Christian guy though I have often disagreed with him and been on opposite sides of political struggles to him in the past. I would take everything he says with a very large pillar of salt! While there are some valid points in the questions he poses these should be asked in face to face dialogue with Muslim leaders, rather than in the megaphone atmosphere of the Evening Standard and internet petitions.

On facts as I understand it
1) the mosque is over a mile from the current WH U F C ground.
2) It is also a mile or two from the proposed Olympic stadium
3:) The area has had a significant Muslim population for well over 30 years and the growth of the Muslim population has resulted from three things, a) the flight of white people including Christians away from the area b) young age structure and high fertility rates in the local Bangladeshi and Pakistani population c) some recent migration into the area of Muslim people from other overseas countries and to some extent from within the UK.

It would probably be illegal for the mayor of London to use tax payers money to build any place of worship..in any religion.. Any subsidy can only be given in the form of regeneration funding for social action or social welfare projects which are open to all as we have received as Christians both in this our Project and in the case of yours! .

In the history of this mosques application for planning permission which goes back ovesidy for 10 years there was a point when Newham Council actually asked the mosque for several million pounds subsidy for the renovation of the derelict River Lea waterfront which adjoins their sight.

If Christians want freedom of religion in this country we should avoid knee jerk reactions like this, at least check our facts to ensure we are not bearing false witness against our neighbours, and be arguing for freedom of religion and justice for our Muslim neighbours


Greg Smith


What I wrote to Alan Craig was this

Dear Alan
I hope you and yours are well... and that life in Newham is good... If you read through the thread of Email correspondence below you'll see a complex chain of how something you said arrived up here on the Christian grapevine and in my view as a result of "Chinese whispers" (sorry for the non PC term) has become in my view quite dangerous for inter community harmony in Lancashire..

It's not absolutely clear to me what are your words and what others have added..

You won't I think be surprised I disagree with some of your views... and it would be great to debate face to face on some of them like we used to...I'll admit you do pose some important questions.. and I hope I haven't been to hard on you or unfair in my critique.. And I hope I have got my facts right now I'm out of touch with the Newham context... I certainly uphold your right to say these sort of things...and in the public domain if you feel it necessary.. In fact it's not you I'm angry about.. but the naievity of understanding of many Christians who pick up and pass on these things as part of their "martyr complex"...and nostalgia for the days of Empire....

We've actually got a similar planning dispute running over a mosque development in Preston at the moment..in a white upper middle class neighbourhood a conservation area like the woodgrange estate.. And while the car parking and architectural blending issues have come to the fore, it has also brought out the BNP racist tribes in leafleting and the local press...which I think you would agree we can do without...

Of course the answer to the parking problem in Newham is for the Hammers to get relegated to the Conference (as they may well be soon!) and for Kingsway and Glory House to move out to Essex!! as I understand the former will be doing..

Meanwhile I will of course vote in favour of the mosque development!

Shalom Greg Smith