tagged w/ Mosques
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This is near Hen-el-Halili, a huge bazaar in Cairo. The prayer call can be heard throughout the corridors of the bazaar and echoes in the main square.This is near Hen-el-Halili, a huge bazaar in Cairo. The prayer call can be heard... more
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COUNCIL chiefs in one Midland city are spending more than £3 million of taxpayers’ money on fighting Muslim extremism.
Birmingham City Council has spent £525,000 in the last financial year under the Government’s controversial and secrecy-shrouded Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder Fund (PVE).
And it has secured a further £2.4 million under the scheme to spend over the next three years.
Councils across the country have received PVE cash to help communities tackle extremism. But there are concerns over how effectively local authorities are using the money.
Birmingham City Council used the £525,000 to fund projects at 10 mosques in the city.
Dr Mashuq Ally, the council’s Head of Equality and Diversity, the department in charge of deciding how to spend the funds, said the money had been used for 11 projects.
He said these focused on young people, religious institutions, and women and media. Among them was a scheme to teach imams English.
Another was aimed at developing management structures in the mosques.
"It was also about making sure they are embracing the involvement of young people and women in the decision-making process," Dr Ally said.
Another programme involved the council funding Criminal Records Bureau checks on all teachers and staff working at the Islamic schools – or madrassas – attached to the mosques.
Among the mosques to receive funding is the Green Lane mosque in Small Heath.
The Channel 4 Dispatches programme exposed hate preaching at this mosque.
A preacher, Abu Usama, urged that homosexuals be thrown from mountains.
Other Birmingham mosques to benefit include Birmingham Central Mosque in Highgate and the Hazrat Sultan Bahu Trust in Balsall Heath.
Dr Ally said that none of the mosques was being handed cash directly.
He said: "We don’t give money out, we commission work and pay for the cost for things to be delivered. We don’t go and tender out, the reason for that is that it can create divisions within communities.
"This area of work is highly specialised, we are on a learning curve to discover how best we can project manage programmes to help in this area of work.
"We don’t know what’s out there and what we had to decide during last year’s pilot when we received just over £500,000 was how to identify what kind of projects will best prevent, and continue to prevent, violent extremism."
But Dean Godson, research director of the Policy Exchange think-tank, has questioned the relevance of some PVE projects in countering violent extremism.
"It was created after the 7/7 bombings, reflecting Tony Blair’s belief that the Muslim Council of Britain had not done enough to help fight the extremists," he said.COUNCIL chiefs in one Midland city are spending more than £3 million of... more
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Muslims worked together this weekend to provide Sunday lunch for people of races & religions at the Al-Iman Mosque in Bukit Panjang.
BLESSING TO ALL COMMITTEE
Soon after the Tsunami in 2004 Islamic Religious Council of Singapore and mosque heads set up a Blessings to All committee to help in humanitarian efforts. To date, it has raised $1.3 million for disaster victims in South Asia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sichuan, China.
Yesterday the committee presented a $129,000 cheque to Mercy Relief for survivors of this year's cyclone in Myanmar and earthquake in China.
The committee encourages Mosques to make a difference in neighborhoods. Some Mosques now projects like running soup kitchens & beach clean ups.
RESPONSES
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said:
'Keep up the good work, to be good Muslims, good citizens, good neighbours!' he wrote in a note at the mosque, alongside comments from other well-wishers, who included representatives of major religions in Singapore.
Said Mr R. Bawajee of the Hindu Advisory Board: 'The promotion of sharing among communities facilitates inter-faith harmony.'
Muslims worked together this weekend to provide Sunday lunch for people of races &... more
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Switzerland is to vote on banning Mosque minarets as there has been over 100,000 signitaures asking for a ban nation-wide against Mosque minarets led by Swiss People's party.
Earlier this week a channel 4 documentary "It Shouldn't Happen to a Muslim" showed how many press reports have reported false reports on Muslims & Islam and how many Muslims are living in fear in the UK with some even go as far as buying homes in places like Muslim-Turkey incase things get worse.
The documentary was hosted by a Peter Oborne a devout-Christian who was shocked to find what was happening.Switzerland is to vote on banning Mosque minarets as there has been over 100,000... more
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A Mosque in the prodominantly Muslim Xinjiang province in China has been destroyed for not putting a sign up to support the olympics.
The Mosque was accused of "illegally" renovating the structure (the renovation took place in 1998), carrying out "illegal" religious activities aswell as storing "illegal" copies of the Holy Quran- which have also been seized alongside many people being detained.
On March 29 this year more than 50 Christians were arrested with their Bibles, books etc being confiscated for a "illegal" gathering in the Sichuan Province.A Mosque in the prodominantly Muslim Xinjiang province in China has been destroyed for... more
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The Muslim community has raised £15,000 through two dinner-fundraisers & collecting money at Bolton's Mosques for humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza via Islamic Relief.
At one of the dinners MP Dr Brian Iddon, gave a presentation about his experiences in Gaza which he visited earlier this year:
He said: "Conditions in Gaza are bleak, with little or no fuel for public services, including garbage collection and ambulances. People have to walk to work, often arriving late, including doctors, nurses and teachers.
"Food distribution is down to the basics and, recently, the UN were unable to distribute food at all. Around 80% of Gazans now rely on charities and the UN to distribute their basic food supplies."
He added: "If electricity fails at al-Shifa hospital for 30 mins, 80 people die and, if it fails for a week, 250 people die."
He added:
This collective punishment on the imprisoned people of Gaza is illegal under international law."The Muslim community has raised £15,000 through two dinner-fundraisers &... more
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