Numbers swelling for 9/11 mosque protest (From Harrow Times)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news & views by texting Harrow Times to 80360, or email us
Numbers swelling for 9/11 Harrow Mosque protest
10:37am Thursday 3rd September 2009 in News
NUMBERS are swelling for an anti-Islam 9/11 protest outside Harrow Central Mosque.
Hardline groups who say they do not want any more mosques in Britain have planned to stage a two-hour protest outside the building, in Station Road, at 5pm, on September 11.
The event will commemorate the 2001 terrorist attacks as well as spreading an anti-Islam message, but the mosque community say they too oppose terrorism and extremism of all kinds.
The event is being advertised through social networking website Facebook where 206 people say they will go, 560 say they might go and 1,120 are yet to reply.
Unite Against Fascism (UAF) also plans to stage its own counter demonstration starting four hours earlier, and a Facebook page advertising the event has 132 confirmed guests.
Almost 1,900 people have yet to reply and 176 say they might attend.
Chief Superintendent Dal Babu, borough commander for Harrow, told a meeting with mosque leaders, on August 22, that the anti-Islam protesters could raise at most 15 to 20 people.
Speaking at the meeting, he said: “We are confident that we are able to deal with any issues that come to our attention and we ask that you remain calm and confident in our ability to deal with them.”
There are fears UAF members could clash with protesters from the English Defence League (EDL) after a stand off between the two groups in Birmingham led to violent scenes and 35 arrests.
But while the Facebook group is sponsored by EDL and splinter group Casuals United, the two organisations are no longer advertising it on their own websites.
Stephen Gash, of Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), the main organiser of the anti-Islam protest, said there would be no violence from his side.
UAF also say they intend to protest within the law.
Harrow politicians from both sides of the political divide have rallied to defend the mosque, where members say they are being unfairly targetted.
Rachel Sharp, the Harrow Times group editor, has declared this paper's support for the religious institution, saying “we too stand together with Harrow Central Mosque, and reject any attempts to divide us”.
Comments(12)
SeaBee
says...
7:19pm Thu 3 Sep 09
EDL, come to Harrow, shout at a building site. UAF stay in, wherever it is that you come from. To paraphrase what I wrote in reply to an earlier article on the same matter... let the EDL have their protest, they will block the traffic and if UAF don't turn up, they will have no-one else to blame. The media will report a case of Neanderthals baying at a boarded up building site and will show to the rest of the world that, as A N Milne wrote, they are bears of very little brain
jackdaw
says...
8:45pm Thu 3 Sep 09
Anti-Nazi
says...
11:11pm Thu 3 Sep 09
Those of us who oppose Islamophobia are calling for a dignified and determined demonstration in defence of Harrow’s united community. Because we live and work in Brent and Harrow, we are organising support from among friends, neighbours, workmates, trade union branches and other organisations as well as leafleting on the streets. We do not need to rely on Facebook, it’s just an additional tool to let people know what’s happening.
We find that the vast majority of people in Harrow agree with your editor in valuing Harrow’s diverse and united community and are not prepared to let these preacher s of hatred divide us. Mr Gash and some of his supporters claim they are not racist. They just hate Islam. It could be argued that anti-Semitism is not racist either since Muslim and Jew are religious not racist classifications, but the those who will be demonstrating against Islam have the same aim as the Nazis in the 1930s and racists everywhere – to discriminate against one section of the community in order to divide us. Pastor Neimoeller, a victim of the Nazis, wrote the famous lines, “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew, then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist....” Now they are coming for the Muslims and we must all speak out in their defence before it is too late. That is why I hope that people of goodwill in Harrow will come together on September 11th and assert, not through violence but through force of numbers, that the fascist demonstrators are not welcome here.
Richard_at_Harrow
says...
1:56pm Fri 4 Sep 09
SeaBee
says...
9:12am Sun 6 Sep 09
Regarding Pastor Martin Niemöller, originally a supporter of Mr Hitler,he wrote those lines long after the Nazis had been democratically elected by the German people. The reason why the Germans elected the Nazis was to put an end to the internal strife between the left and right political parties. They could just as as easily have voted in the communists. The UAF by organising counter-demonstratio
ns against the EDL are taking the UK down the same road as pre-Nazi Germany. Far better to let the fascists have their demonstration unhindered. They have the right to demonstrate peacefully, they do not have the right to block the road or the pavement and the police, if they are not concentrating their efforts on keeping two opposing mobs separate can ensure that they are moved on and they can do their shouting in Tesco's Harrow car park or that of Waitrose in Harrow Weald. Harrow Council can do their bit by obtaining an injunction to prevent the EDL, the UAF and their supporters from entering the Civic Centre car parks and the police can arrest them for Contempt of Court if they do so (again it requires the police not to be spending their efforts on separating two rival groups of demonstrators). No violence will mean no publicity except to show the EDL demonstrators as objects of ridicule when they bay at a boarded up building site.
Racheal01
says...
12:58pm Wed 9 Sep 09
This is an attempt to destroy are peaceful community where people of all races can live in Harmony.
We do not want civil war on our streets as has happened when these racists targeted Birmingham city center.
Why has the council given permission for this?
Get these racist Nazi thugs off our streets.
Chunkey Monkey
says...
2:12pm Wed 9 Sep 09
With regards to the protest itself, I do doubt that the EDL will turn up in any significant numbers. Their protests have been poorly attended in the past, not least because they lack even remedial organisational skills.
SuperStudent18
says...
11:35pm Wed 9 Sep 09
Its quite baffling really.
SBE
says...
10:46pm Thu 10 Sep 09
saeed_hussain
says...
11:33pm Thu 10 Sep 09
These narrow minded nazi's probably dont have anything better to do tomorrow.
There is no justification in them standing outside the a Masjid. Is it going to bring the victims of 9/11 back? No. Do the Muslims of Harrow have any connection to 9/11? The BNP are a bunch of Nazi who are programmed like robots to hate anyone who is a Muslim or anyone who is not white
The question you have to ask yourselves is "Who are the real terrorists?"
What is the main objective of the nazi's? Il tell you what it is. they are trying to provoke a reaction. I hope my Muslims brothers stay calm tomorrow if anything takes place.
Allah says " Be patient with them as they plan, for i am the best of planners"
malak_skywalker
says...
2:15am Fri 11 Sep 09
SeeBea –
My dear you are completely ignorant of the history of both the Christian and Muslim religions if you believe conversion was sought by means of propaganda blah blah. Please don’t give history a bad name, by glazing and manipulating it to serve your own confused and tainted vision of the greatest monotheistic faiths HISTORICALLY.
Whether Christianity and Islam used external methods, true religious conversion is a matter of the spirit, and without being God-conscious how can anyone truly class himself or herself as either Muslim/ Christian.
Secondly, who do both religions prize as their greatest role models to follow the examples of, Jesus and Muhammad (pbuh). None of who used propaganda, or arms, but actually endured these – and if you would like a history lesson inserted here, these aforementioned acts of hatred was actually concocted by the Jews. So try to open up your eyes to see the bigger picture, and do not try to insult religions that you have no understanding of, otherwise you come across as being just as ignorant as the Nazis who blamed the ‘Jew’ for their economic demise after the First World War. Let’s try to be civil and open-minded about things, and preach respect for humankind alike shall we ☺
Joliet68 says...
12:19pm Thu 3 Sep 09
Why can't people just live and let live? I'm not too keen on the giant tower sticking out of the top of it but I think, once it's finished, it could be one of the best looking buildings in Harrow.
What exactly do the anti-Islamists object to? Muslims have been worshipping there for years. Why protest now? They must be upset about the Mosque. It's just a building FFS. I think it's a better use of the land than the matchboxes that pass for flats. At least the Mosque has made provision for parking which is more than flat developers do.