Protest against Blackburn ‘terrace house mosque’ (From Blackburn Citizen)
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Protest against Blackburn ‘terrace house mosque’
9:42am Wednesday 19th September 2012 in News
By Bill Jacobs, Local government reporter
OBJECTIONS The mosque, in Accrington Road, Audley and Jack Straw
COUNCILLORS are set to tell a mosque in Blackburn to move out of a terrace house after objections from neighbours.
The town’s MP Jack Straw has backed objectors to an application for retrospective planning consent for the place of worship above the Ashrafi Study Centre Madrassah, in Accrington Road, Audley.
He has told Blackburn with Darwen planning committee that using terraced houses as mosques was no longer necessary, or appropriate, to allow Muslims to practise their faith.
Farooq Mohammed has been operating an Islamic school at the premises with planning permission since July 2009 for 75 pupils, between 5pm and 7.30pm.
In August last year he submitted a retrospective application to use the whole building as a mosque, which was withdrawn in January because of noise and highway safety concerns.
In July, he submitted a new retrospective proposal to use just the first floor as a mosque, with an estimated maximum 25 worshippers at lunchtime Friday Prayers, and three to five for other worship occasions, between 4.30am and 11pm.
Following objections from neighbours to its existing use as a mosque, from Mr Straw, and from Father Martin Daniels, of nearby St Jude’s Church, the application will be decided by the committee tomorrow.
Officers have recommended refusal on the grounds of noise and disturbance to neighbours.
Mr Straw wrote to the committee: “In the 1970s the developing Asian community needed to use terraced houses for the early madrassahs and mosques but now, in 2012, surely the community is well developed enough to have got past this?
“There are well-funded and well-established mosques in many parts of the town.”
Mr Mohammed’s agent Vika Lukman, of Compass Architectural Consultants, said: “We have no comment to make.”
Comments(31)
gutterpress
says...
10:35am Wed 19 Sep 12
happycyclist
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10:44am Wed 19 Sep 12
Keith Myath
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10:57am Wed 19 Sep 12
oldblue
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11:19am Wed 19 Sep 12
nearly sane
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11:19am Wed 19 Sep 12
happycyclist wrote:Very, very true!!!
Jack doesn't need your votes anymore.
woolywords
says...
11:28am Wed 19 Sep 12
Who gave permission in the first place for this?
For a start off, it should never have been granted permission to be a nursery, let alone madrassa. What about the number of toilets per person, the handwashing facilities or
fire escape, in case fire breaks out in the hallway? You wouldn't get me putting my children in such a place for a second. It's just not safe enough for them to be there. If this were commercial premises, the Health & Safety people would have it closed in an heartbeat.
Consider this.. Bonfire night is coming and some idiot puts a lighted firework through the letterbox. It explodes, causing a fire at the bottom of the stairs. How do the children in the upper rooms get out of the building?
Who wants to vote to have a line-up of crispy kiddies on their conscience?
Come on, hands up!
makaveli96
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11:37am Wed 19 Sep 12
jellybiff
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11:39am Wed 19 Sep 12
rubbish straw you were just too soft to refuse them because they would play the race card.
makaveli96
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12:40pm Wed 19 Sep 12
jellybiff wrote:There's rumours that Jack Straw isn't actually from the Town!
Mr Straw wrote to the committee: “In the 1970s the developing Asian community needed to use terraced houses for the early madrassahs and mosques but now, in 2012, surely the community is well developed enough to have got past this? rubbish straw you were just too soft to refuse them because they would play the race card.
AnthonyUK
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12:42pm Wed 19 Sep 12
makaveli96
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1:48pm Wed 19 Sep 12
AnthonyUK wrote:It happened years ago in Russia
They think they can do whatever they like and nobody has a right to object often holding up the race card to make the council recoil in horror! I'm glad this has come about. I think more councils should smash through things like this and mean business ignoring the race card and just getting on with it. Good!
Moscow
Get it!!
emigrator
says...
1:55pm Wed 19 Sep 12
jeffers69
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4:32pm Wed 19 Sep 12
They didn't have Planning permission for the Dome on the one on Didsbury St. (used the be Burnside HFE) but it is still there. Please could someone tell me why?
retired one
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4:35pm Wed 19 Sep 12
Benjis mum
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6:03pm Wed 19 Sep 12
Every muslim will then want their home designated as a mosque so that they can live above it, as mosques would be exempt from paying council tax.
district01
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6:04pm Wed 19 Sep 12
district01
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6:27pm Wed 19 Sep 12
timeforcommonsense
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9:22pm Wed 19 Sep 12
Marsdogs
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9:41pm Wed 19 Sep 12
gutterpress wrote:Yawn
I am so glad that I am an atheist, so can openly despise all religions.
nw realist
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9:50pm Wed 19 Sep 12
gazzandste
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11:07pm Wed 19 Sep 12
sen c ble
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5:45am Thu 20 Sep 12
timeforcommonsense wrote:That truly does confirm the banana and the rugby ball theory. Eat the banana and pretend to bite a chunck of the rugby ball, and spit out when we have our backs turned to you. You're gonna struggle digesting this 1000 'places of worship', you pathetic witch. There's nothing that comes forward from you that's properly fact based. Why do you alway's resort to such garbage. It's fun is it? Atleast you'll bring smiles to the readers of the LT. I suppose that is what clown's are supposed to do. Anyway 'carry on'. we could do with some amusement!
There may only be officially 50 Mosques registered in Blackburn but I had heard that there were over 1000 'places of worship' registered with Blackburn with Darwen council. If this is true then people need to be made aware of this and something done about these bogus 'places of worship'. I'm sure people have a right to view this register under the freedom of information act.
district01
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10:42am Thu 20 Sep 12
It’s not April is it?
peely
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12:44pm Thu 20 Sep 12
district01 wrote:He,s seen the life his dad has had for the past twenty odd years and the perks so you could hardly blame him! Certainly beats working for a living in any other job!Not to mention the gold plated MP's pension soon to come!
I’ve just seen a billboard outside of my newsagents saying that Jack Straws son is wanting to be MP for Darwen.
It’s not April is it?
Trebles all round..
Excluded again
says...
5:46pm Thu 20 Sep 12
timeforcommonsense wrote:Don't know where you heard this, but its not true.
There may only be officially 50 Mosques registered in Blackburn but I had heard that there were over 1000 'places of worship' registered with Blackburn with Darwen council. If this is true then people need to be made aware of this and something done about these bogus 'places of worship'. I'm sure people have a right to view this register under the freedom of information act.
You can check for yourself. To get exemption from Council Tax, places of worship have to register as charities. The Charity Commission helpfully keeps a list on its website. Even more helpfully, the list is seachable by town.
No need for a Freedom of Information request. Just go on the Charity commission's website and check out the listing of charities in Blackburn.
sen c ble
says...
6:27pm Thu 20 Sep 12
Excluded again wrote:She hasn't.
timeforcommonsense wrote:Don't know where you heard this, but its not true.
There may only be officially 50 Mosques registered in Blackburn but I had heard that there were over 1000 'places of worship' registered with Blackburn with Darwen council. If this is true then people need to be made aware of this and something done about these bogus 'places of worship'. I'm sure people have a right to view this register under the freedom of information act.
You can check for yourself. To get exemption from Council Tax, places of worship have to register as charities. The Charity Commission helpfully keeps a list on its website. Even more helpfully, the list is seachable by town.
No need for a Freedom of Information request. Just go on the Charity commission's website and check out the listing of charities in Blackburn.
The witch is always posting ridiculous comments just to satisfy her unfouded demented views!
mark007
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8:48am Fri 21 Sep 12
kenbro
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3:23pm Fri 21 Sep 12
turd moor
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10:34pm Fri 21 Sep 12
Iftikhar
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12:22pm Thu 27 Sep 12
Muslim community not only needs Mosques but also state funded Muslim schools for their bilingual children. They need to learn and be well versed in standard English to follow the national Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. They also need to learn and be well versed in Arabic, Urdu and other community languages to keep in touch with their cultural heritage and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit.
A good school is not just a knowledge factory or a conveyor belt for churning out exam passes - it is a community, a family. A community is held together by common values and principles.
Excluded again says...
10:25am Wed 19 Sep 12
Just how the system should work.