A taste of Arabia in Wales

A taste of Arabia - in Wales! 9th August 2005

Cardiff is to get its very own chunk of Arabia following the announcement of a new mosque in the city which will be the biggest in Wales and one the largest in the whole of the UK.

The existing mosque in Woodville Road in the Cathays district is in a renovated warehouse but such is the rapid growth of the Muslim community in Cardiff that the existing premises are inadequate and the new Medina mosque will include a prayer hall for over 3,000 people, a school with five clbuttrooms, an Islamic library, residential accommodation for the imam and underground parking for over 150 cars.

Exotic flora

A computer generated picture of the proposed mosque, which will take a year to build is posted above. One wonders if the planners have any knowledge of Cardiff and whether the Cairo based architects, working with the Somerset based FW Beresford Smith and Partners were painting a picture which could have come straight from Saudi Arabia or Egypt. As the picture shows the building will have four giant minarets soaring into the South Wales sky and for that added eastern flavour ö non Welsh palm trees! Only the spice traders in the street outside are missing from the picture.

If any doubting Thomas among the British traditionalist majority needed any further evidence that Islam is totally incompatible with British traditions then this giant mosque should be all that is needed.

Colonial symbol

The architectural style cannot by any stretch of the imagination be seen as Welsh, it is not in keeping with Welsh or any other British building styles, whether contemporary, Victorian, Georgian, Tudor or earlier. This is a mbuttive building which demonstrates the extent of colonisation by the Muslim community in a British city. It is a symbol of Islamic domination or intent to dominate following the manner in which Norman dukes built intimidating stone keeps in the middle of what had been Anglo-Saxon communities and in the same way that Edward I built a string of stone walled castles throughout northern Wales.

ãLandmarkä

"This is a landmark building for Cardiff, Wales and the UK," said chairman of the Muslim Education and Welfare Society of Wales, Mohammad Javed. He added "It is a fantastic building, which looks set to become a tourist attraction."

No one is disagreeing that it may have a beautiful character but not in Cardiff! There are many aficionados of all architectural styles and those who prefer Islamic architecture already have plenty of destinations to chose from; Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and into more exotic central Asia.

If the Muslim community of Cardiff wanted to show any accommodation, any compromise with their British hosts the mosque would have been built in a rather more modest style, perhaps in locally quarried stone with a slate roof and an avenue of native beech or oak instead of palm trees. Instead they have chosen a design which is nothing less than a symbol showing that they, the adherents of Islam have conquered Cardiff.

The community might even have chosen a more British name, something evocative of Wales such as Red Dragon, Merlin, Glendower or even the municipally functional South Wales Mosque, instead of naming their building after Islam's second holiest city in Saudi Arabia.

It is akin to Britons erecting a replica of Lincoln Cathedral in downtown Riyadh, but of course the Saudi authorities would never consider a planning application of that nature and neither are we demanding that they do so.

Lack of objection

The planning application, number 04-2586-C, went through without objection and was given approval by Cardiff City Council on the 15th December. Many will ask the question where was the opposition? Does the lack of any objections really mean the people of Cardiff genuinely embrace multi-culturalism and really do want a giant piece of Arabia in their city, or perhaps it was ignorance, apathy or cowardice a fear that objectors might be branded racist and intolerant and the usual meaningless epithets from the multi-cultis.

It may be too late for the people of Cardiff to stop the mosque going ahead but for the British majority in other towns and cities around the country there are countless ways of preventing unwanted mosques being built in neighbourhoods. It doesnât take too much effort to obfuscate and stop these centres of an alien religion being built on our land. Planning applications are subject to strict observation and checks. Lodging objections on the grounds of noise, traffic, concerns about environmental impact, loss of business due to building works etc, all can be lodged in a manner which cannot be deemed in any way ãracistä. Of course it is not and never has been ãracistä to object to the construction or redevelopment of a mosque. Muslims are not a racial group, there are white European converts to Islam, Arab Muslims, African Muslims, Oriental Muslims. Islam is a religion, a religion that is alien to Britain.

The choice is ours and ours alone, we can either roll over and channel hop our multi-channel digiboxes and ignore the construction sites of mosques, Islamic schools and community centres or start acting like responsible adults who want a British future for our children and grandchildren.

-- Jim Union Against Multi-culty

"Abolish Multi-Culty and String Up The Traitors!"