Sunday World - March 23rd 2003

Sunday World 09.03.03

Craigavon Echo, 12.02.03

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Sunday Life, 16 February 2003

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Racist party stirs up anti-Muslim hatred

By Maeve Connolly

A WHITE supremacist group has posted a leaflet on its website berating the planned construction of a Mosque in Craigavon. The leaflet, entitled ‘This is Ulster, not Islamabad’. No Mosques here has been designed by the White Nationalist Party and suggests the Mosque could become an asylum for “Islamic terrorists”.

It has also been reported that the party will draft members into Northern Ireland in the coming weeks for the mass distribution of leaflets in Craigavon.

The proposal to build a Mosque for the 200-strong Muslim community in the Bleary area of Craigavon is before council but has been opposed by several unionist councillors.

The White Nationalist Party claims the leaflet is part of its campaign “against the spread of Islamic militancy and other non-British sects across our country”.

“We are proud of our British culture, land and our nation. We do not need Mosques, temples or Islamic terrorists here in Ulster,” the pamphlet reads.

However, Muslim Chaplain at Queen’s University of Belfast Dr Mamoun Mobayed said such “ridiculous behaviour” resulted from ignorance about minority faiths such as Islam.

“It is symptomatic of a lack of information and understanding and the negative image of other faiths,” Dr Mobayed said.

The former president of the Islamic Centre in Belfast said “such negative attitudes and feelings” could be resolved through dialogue.

“The presence of a minority faith indirectly helps bring the two sections of the community together in Northern Ireland. People from either side will have wider horizons and realise there is more than just Protestant and Catholic.”

Dr Mobayed said Muslims in Northern Ireland were active members of the community.

“We are contributing culturally, socially and economically to life in Northern Ireland and part of our faith is to practice our faith.

“We don’t worship in churches or synagogues. We pray in Mosques and they should be available to us,” he added.

Craigavon Sinn Fein councillor John O’Dowd, who backs the Mosque proposal, said WNP members “were not welcome” in the area.

He also called on Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble to meet members of the Muslim community.

“They have the right to a place of worship in the community,” Mr O’Dowd added.

Neo-Nazis join unionist anti-mosque campaign

Plans by a white supremacist organisation to campaign against the siting of a mosque in Bleary outside Portadown have been exposed by Craigavon Sinn Féin councillor John O'Dowd.

According to O'Dowd, the self-styled White Nationalist Party (WNP) is planning an intense campaign in the Portadown area against the planning application for the mosque. He described the racist group's campaign as "a disgraceful intensification of sectarian and racial abuse against a place of worship and those of a different religion and culture".

"The news that neo-Nazis are to start a campaign against the siting of a mosque in Craigavon is hardly surprising given the comments of unionist politicians on the subject," added O'Dowd.

The controversy over the mosque first arose after members of David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party objected to the planning permission, with Councillor Fred Crowe claiming it would pave the way for an al-Qaeda cell in the area.

O'Dowd has reiterated his call for David Trimble who is MP for the area, to reign in his councillors and "begin to champion the cause of the Muslim community".