Hereford Mosque Debate – Is it censorship or is it not?

As some on here may know I’m not too enamoured about the idea of a mosque hitting this city.  Having lived in Islamic areas in the UK I’m glad not to be living in one any more.  Not I might add because I disliked any particular individuals, there’s good and bad in everyone, but because the ideology of Islam is, until it reforms, a threat to the western way of life and a threat closer to home.

Last week the local newspaper, the Hereford Times, broke the story of a Mosque for Hereford and quite rightly in my mind allowed people to comment on the story which caused a lively debate with good and bad contributions from both sides.  However, this week the debate appears to have disappeared from the Hereford Times website.

What is worrying is that a well informed and lively debate has been replaced with a puff piece by Zac Pandor from the Hereford Muslim Community.  I wonder just how and why the Hereford Times has been leant on to pull the previous story comments?

I’d be interested if someone from the HT could comment on why the thread was pulled.  Was it a libel law issue? Did someone play the race card in the form of a complaint? Fiscal pressure?  Local authority leaning?  I don’t know about these but what I do now know about the HT is that I trust it less now for pulling the thread.

If the HT has pulled the thread for political correctness reasons then shame on them.

There are concerns about this mosque and islamic association in Hereford.  Genuine concerns.  Have a look at their site and see if you have similar concerns http://www.herefordmasjid.com/#/about-us/4558827442

First off. this is most definitely an outreach centre that will promote Islam to non believers and therefore not just a meeting place for those who just happen to be muslim.  The even have a dedicated ‘Dawa’ (evangelism) team.  Do you want your children to be evangelised without your consent at school by any religion, let alone Islam?  Also what about the rights of those ex muslims in Hereford the Dawa lot are going to put pressure on them first.

Secondly, what exactly is going to be on sale in the bookshop?  Saudi hate publications are sadly all too common in both UK and US mosques.  See this report from the Centre  for Religious Freedom (  http://crf.hudson.org/files/publications/SaudiPropoganda.pdf  ).  Do we really need in Hereford our own spigot of hatred in the form of Saudi/Wahabbi/Salafist etc literature being sold and loaned on our doorstep.  We wouldn’t accept Mein Kampf being promoted strongly and openly so why tolerate the promotion of hatred when it comes in a religiously inspired form?

Thirdly they have what is called an ‘Islamic Judiciary Board’.  I think to me and to many others that says Sharia court.  Do we really want or need something like that? (if they behaved in a similar way to Church courts and Jewish Beit Din then I wouldn’t have an issue but there is the danger of sharia-creep with civil law taking on board aspects of islamic sharia law which is incompatible with a modern state of equal humans which is why any normalisation of sharia in western law should be resisted)

Are any of the above a ‘benefit’ to the people of Hereford?  Because they sure as anything haven’t been a benefit to the people of, say Luton.

If people want to believe that a 7th century warlord was a prophet or have a religion based around a day off, or believe a bloke can advance from carpenter to deity without going to college then fair do’s, provided that they do it in ways that doesn’t frighten the horses.

Sadly Islam does frighten the horses, for very good reasons, and there is nothing to be gained by hushing up genuine concerns about Islam or any other expansionist religious group.  Sometimes boils have to be lanced.

Before I go a quick message to the South Wye Councillor Chris Chappell: You said in the HT ““With the ever-expanding growth of Herefordshire, we need to be able to welcome people from all across the world whatever their faith, or no faith.””

Why do we need to welcome people from across the world? What’s in it for us?

And as for the local diversity rent seeker

“Meanwhile, Neville Meredith, community integration and race equality development officer with Herefordshire Council , said: “When people hear the word mosque, they immediately picture some great stone building, but as far as I understand this building will be a small, non-intrusive building in keeping with Herefordshire’s aesthetic”

Why does the phrase ‘forked tongue’ come to mind here.  Remember we pay this guy Neville Meredith’s wages. The problem is too many mosques are intrusive buildings to many people and it’s been noticed but it’s what’s being promoted inside mosques that gives many people the willies.

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/local/9898242.Shock_at_racist_abuse_sparked_by_Hereford_mosque_plan/?ref=mr

(Note no open comments this week.  Strange that innit).  It seems to be a situation where the criticisms of the mosque in the paper have just disappeared.  What next, will the actual critics of the mosque disappear?

9 Comments on "Hereford Mosque Debate – Is it censorship or is it not?"

  1. community integration and race equality development officer

    That’s a non-job which can go immediately. There. Saved you a wage and pension payments.

  2. WOAR – most definitely. Sometimes I wonder whether any of these Diversity Officers even know anything about what they are promoting. It certainly seems that this dude doesn’t really know much about Islam, or has at the least, self blinded himself to the negative sides of Islam. ( I dont’ include the sufi’s in the category of negative muslims / negative islam)

    • I rather suspect that any kind of thinking for oneself is discouraged in jobs like these. They’ll have been taught what to believe, and will be expected to follow that advice to the letter.

      • Yup, it is probably one of those jobs where thinking for oneself is most definitely discouraged. I bet its a case of only approved information will be accepted and computed and entered into the appropriate form, anything else, including contrary opinions, just doesn’t exist. Any unapproved information will be disregarded. All information will be judged against the National Moral Relativism Scale.

  3. WOAR – I look at the Diversity officer and his wibblings and I can’t help thinking why is a diversity officer promoting a religion that sees diversity of belief as a sin? It always amazes me just how much people like Diversity Officers will shut down their mental critical faculties in order to get a handsome wage (which we are all paying for I might add).

  4. You have pricked my conscience. Part of the problem is that people – meaning me – are too scared to take issue with this twaddle. But my local council is asking about what services I want protected and which I would choose to cut.

    So I’m going to make a point of telling them that I regard diversity officers as a waste of money and particularly the ‘religious advisors’ who are at best useless and at worst a malign influence.

  5. I agree about the fear and I’ve mentioned this over at Ambush Predators place. But if we don’t speak out the result will be worse.

    That’s a good idea about saying you want to cut the diveristy officers as obviously unnecessary in consultations but I’m afraid I’m cynical,for the mindset of many who work in local authorities a diversity officer makes them, the senior council staff all feel good, even if they are not doing the area any good, and therefore they, or similar will be protected whilst other services are cut.

    Maybe there is a case for changing council officers esp senior ones when a council changes administration politically as happens in much of the USA.

    But this Hereford diversity geezer really is a seriously uninformed tool. I would have respected him more if he had been honest and said that there is a crap side of Islam, and then explained in detail how this lot were different, but he didn’ he just shilled for the mosque, and became just their mouthpiece . It would be interesting if someone put in an FOI request to find out what his and his colleauges contacts are with Hereford Masjid and associated entities. I’ve got a feeling that such a request may turn up stuff that could be ‘interesting’

  6. For the information of those in the Herefordshire area: it looks like Mr Meredith has been earning his probably substantial crust from the diversity and similar racial victim industry since at least 2003

    http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/elections/hereford_candidates/liberal_democrat/liberal_democrat/2003/05/15/Herefordshire+Archive/5679357.The_jeers__sneers_and_insults_that_wait_just_around_every_corner/

    As I stated a few times on this blog I don’t approve of racism and have often marched against it but is paying this bloke a healthy salary doing anything to stop it or bring those of different races together or is he just picking at the scabs and promoting the culture of victimhood. He certainly cannot recognise an aggressive ideology when it rears its head.

    Anyway he’s still here and still being paid for by the people of Herefordshire and the people nationally and has been so since at least 2003.

    You can be a foe of racism but still not be a tool of Islamists. Mr Meredith may be foe of racism and I’m with him on that all the way, but he has allowed himself to be seen as a tool of an Islamic group and that is not good.

  7. Update: This blog has been contacted by the BBC no less asking for our co-operation with an upcoming programme. The person has contacted us via this blog and has given me a phone number and an email address.

    Now I know many people do not trust the BBC to be impartial with matters of religion, but I feel that the BBC must be told about people’s worries about the growth of Islam and Islamism..

    I’m not going to release the BBC person’s post from moderation as the post contains an office phone number and would be unfair to saddle that person with lots of calls to her desk. I wouldn’t want it done to me if I was in her position as a researcher.

    However, I am putting up a redacted version of her post which contains her email at the BBC and I would encourage readers to make sensible comments about Islam (especially Islam and Islamic problems in the UK) to her (backed up by facts please, facts are sacred, opinion is commonplace)

    Submitted on 2012/09/07 at 9:18 am
    Hello I am a journalist at the BBC and would like to discuss these issues with you for a potential piece. If at all possible could you contact me today as I am on a tight deadline? I’m on xxxx xxx xxxx or lizz.martin@bbc.co.uk thank you so much.

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