Last Friday Newham People's Alliance, which is committed to "fighting the institutional social and religious cleansing of Newham", organised a well-attended demonstration outside Newham Town Hall protesting against the local council's treatment of the Riverine Centre.

Newham Council is taking legal action to evict the Muslim organisation currently operating a temporary mosque on the Abbey Mills site, which is used by 2,500 people, and in December a council planning committee rejected proposals to build a permanent centre there – the so-called "mega-mosque".

A spokesman for the Trustees of the Riverine Centre was quoted by the Newham Recorder as opposing last week's demonstration and stating that Newham People's Alliance "have nothing to do with our organisation and they do not have our support".

Today the Recorder has published a statement from the Alliance, who say they are "a non-partisan muti-faith, multi-party pressure group formed to compel those in power into dialogue with the ordinary people of Newham" and that they "represent the working class majority who have been neglected by a mayor busy empire building at the expense of the most deprived and vulnerable people in his borough".

This is followed by a statement from Newham Council, which accuses the Alliance of busing people in from outside the borough to attend its protest and declares that the council "will not be bullied by a vocal minority into favouring one part of our community over others".

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George Galloway took to the stage last night to re-launch his Respect party in Newham and try to force a local election after the council rejected plans for a so-called mega mosque.

Mr Galloway vowed to put a petition up on the Downing Street website, as soon as parliament resumes after its Christmas break, demanding Newham Council changes its decision on the mosque or changes its leadership.

Mr Galloway, a former MP for Bethnal Green and Bow and now the MP for Bradford West, said he believed Newham is ready for a political revival after Newham councillors voted down a planning application for a mosque holding more than 9,000 people in Canning Town, run by followers of the controversial Tablighi Jamaat movement.

More than 50 people turned out for the public meeting in Plaistow which also saw Lee Jasper, a former advisor to previous London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Yvonne Ridley, a war correspondent who converted to Islam after being captured by the Taliban, take to the stage.

Dressed all in black Mr Galloway told people gathered inside Harold Road Centre, off Green Street, that he would send one of his top people to challenge Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales' leadership in Newham at the next local election. He did not rule out that he might take on the challenge himself.

If the Respect party does not succeed in forcing an early election in Newham, following the refusal of the mosque, then the party plans to put up a Mayoral candidate and councillors in 2014 when elections are due.

Mr Galloway said: "Newham is ready for a political revival and as far as we're concerned it begins here tonight. We know there is something rotten in this borough. New Labour has far too much power for the good of the borough.

He then hit out at the councillors decision to reject the mosque. "It's a big mosque because a lot of people want to pray to the almighty. What is wrong with praying?"

Mr Galloway went on to say that you can lend money at high interest rates at a time when "destructive" aspects of society such as alcohol and gambling is rife. "But you can't build a mosque," he said.

"There are 90,000 Muslims voters in Newham as Labour is going to find out at the next local election. And they have all just got a slap in the face by their own leadership."

He asked the audience if they thought the council would have turned down plans for a Catholic church or Jewish synagogue. "They did it because the people involved are Muslims. And because they thought they could get away with it," he said

And he warned New Labour they could suffer the same fate as in Tower Hamlets where he defeated their MP Oona King in 2005.

Mr Galloway said: "Oona King, who is now skating on ice, voted to attack Iraq when 90 per cent of her electorate where against the war because she thought she could get away with it because who else would they vote for in Tower Hamlets. There was only me so she thought there would just be a bit of rocking of the boat."

He branded the decision to reject the mosque an insult to Muslims in Newham. "We can't take the decision on the mosque lying down. All my experience in Bradford and Tower Hamlets tells me that if you fail first time try again. The leadership in Newham must be changed."

Newham previously had three Respect councillors but all sitting councillors are Labour.

Newham Recorder, 29 December 2012

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A plan to build the UK's biggest mosque in Stratford, east London, has been rejected by councillors.

Thousands of supporters gathered outside Newham Council's town hall ahead of the decision.

The Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat has been trying for 10 years to build a mosque in Newham.

Supporters outside the town hall, some of whom had come from Birmingham and Bradford, held signs reading: "15 years of waiting. Not a day more. Vote yes to the Riverine Centre".

BBC London reporter Alex Bushill estimated that 3,000 people had gathered. The crowd dispersed after the meeting.

The Abbey Mills Mosque – also known as the Riverine Centre – would have become the biggest Islamic centre in the UK and one of the largest in western Europe.

Council officers recommended councillors refuse permission for expansion on the former industrial land, amid strong opposition and concern about the project.

All eight councillors on the committee voted against the plan at about 20:30 GMT.

Councillor Conor McAuley said it was rejected on the grounds that the land is designated for mixed commercial and residential use, there was not enough consideration for transport and it would not have led to more jobs and homes. He said: "That really wasn't good enough."

Community leader Ala Uddin Ahmed said: "There are 90,000 Muslims around the borough. The Muslim community is growing and there is need for bigger worship. We are extremely let down. We think it is unjust because of the demand of the local people and the Muslim community."

BBC News, 5 December 2012

Update:  See also Evening Standard, 6 December 2012

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Plans to build Britain's biggest place of worship – a "monolithic, overly dominant and incongruous" mosque in east London – are set to be thrown out despite 25,000 letters in favour.

The mosque, which could take 12,000 people – four times as many as St Paul's Cathedral – would be as big as Battersea power station and become the HQ of Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat. However, officers for Newham council recommend the plan is refused.

The sect, to which the July 7 bombers and shoe bomber Richard Reid have been linked, could now be forced to leave the Abbey Mills site altogether in Canning Road, near the Olympic Park, after a 13-year battle.

Alan Craig, campaign director of MegaMosque No Thanks and a former Newham councillor, said: "Now it's up to the planning committee to follow the recommendation to reject. The building would be ugly, it would add nothing to the area and we have huge concerns about the group behind it."

Tablighi Jamaat first submitted plans to use the site, which has several prefab buildings, in 1999, arousing intense opposition from the start. In 2001, it agreed worship there would be on a temporary basis only, but when permission expired in 2006 the group continued to use the site.

In 2010, the council issued an enforcement notice but Tablighi Jamaat won its appeal last year and more than 5,000 people a week now worship at the site. The giant new mosque would have 40ft minarets, a visitors centre, a library and a 300-space car park.

The council's special strategic development committee meets next Wednesday to decide. The planning office received 3,000 letters opposing the scheme. Only one per cent of the 25,000 letters of support were from people living in the local consultation area.

Critics claim Tablighi Jamaat preaches "separation and segregation". The group maintains its main objective is peaceful missionary work.

The Anjuman-E-Islahul-Muslimeen of London UK Trust, Tablighi Jamaat's charitable trust and the site's owner, said it will appeal if the plan is thrown out. Newham council said: "Officers have made a recommendation for refusal, which will be considered.

"Our planning policies promote the development of the Abbey Mills site for a mix of residential, employment and community uses, to help create a new local centre near West Ham station and regenerate the area. It is not considered this application is consistent with these policies.

"There are also concerns about the size of the proposed buildings and impact on parking and traffic."

Evening Standard, 29 November 2012

See also "Newham council officers recommend so-called West Ham mega mosque is rejected", Newham Recorder, 28 November 2012

Update:  Needless to say, the far right can scarcely restrain their joy at the news. Alan Craig must be so proud.

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Britain could have its first Sharia-controlled zone if plans for a mega-mosque more than four times the size of St Paul's Cathedral get the go-ahead.

The East London mosque, known as the Riverine Centre, will hold 9,312 worshippers, compared to 2,400 at St Paul's. The 16-acre site in West Ham will include 40ft minarets, an Islamic library, a dining hall, multi-use games areas, tennis courts, sports facilities and eight flats for visiting Muslim clerics.

Islamist group Tablighi Jamaat has submitted updated plans for what Cambridge-based architects NRAP are calling a "contemporary Islamic sacred space" the size of Battersea Power Station.

But last night campaigners against the proposal claimed the application was a smokescreen for wider intentions to create a hardline Islamic enclave in the capital. They also insisted facilities for the wider non-Muslim community in East London would be minimal and disguise Tablighi's real aim to establish a global base.

The group has been dubbed an "antechamber of fundamentalism" by French intelligence officials. Two of the July 7 bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, and failed shoe bomber Richard Reid, left, are believed to have prayed at a Tablighi mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Alan Craig, campaign director of MegaMosque-NoThanks, said: "Newham Council wants a mixed use of the site with homes, shops and business units. The mosque trustees say they want to build a mosque the size of Battersea Power Station. Either way, it will be the UK's first custombuilt Sharia-controlled zone."

Daily Star Sunday, 7 October 2012

This is just the usual ignorant, misleading nonsense we have come to expect from the right-wing press on the subject of the Newham "mega-mosque" (which won't even be the largest mosque in London, as according to the present plan its capacity would be rather less than that of the Ahmadiyyas' Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden).

The fact that Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan may have attended the Dewsbury Markaz is statistically meaningless given that the mosque holds 3,000 worshippers, nor is there the slightest evidence that it influenced their turn to violent extremism. And the Star yet again rolls out the claim that Tablighi Jamaat is an "antechamber of fundamentalism", in order to suggest that a "fundamentalist" interpretation of religious belief necessarily constitutes a threat, while at the same time happily quoting Alan Craig, leader of the right-wing fundamentalist political party the Christian Peoples Alliance.

The reliability of Craig's views on the Newham project can be gauged by the fact that, when he stood as the Christian Choice candidate for London mayor in 2008, his original election broadcast was rejected by both the BBC and ITV who demanded that he remove his unsubstantiated accusations against Tablighi Jamaat.

In fact Craig's statements in that broadcast – he described TJ as "separatist" and implied that they were extremists – were quite mild by his standards. After the failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow in 2007, Craig issued a disgraceful press release declaring that the Newham mosque was "linked" to the bomb plots, in which he made the following inflammatory claim: "Tablighi Jamaat radicalises and dehumanises Muslim young men. They have a growing and ominous track record as further young men follow Tabligh teaching about Islam and then go on to plan horrendous atrocities."

Meanwhile, in a press release headed "Irate residents launch campaign against West Ham mega-mosque", Craig boasts that he and his sorry little gang of bigots (masquerading as concnerned "residents") have been out leafleting in Newham in an attempt to whip up fear and hatred over the mosque among the local non-Muslim population. Craig's actions have received the warm endorsement of the "counter-jihad" movement (see here and here).

The Daily Star Sunday report has also proved a source of inspiration to the far right. The English Defence League's Facebook page has provided a link to the article, provoking the following comments from EDL supporters:

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West Ham is in need of a new mosque because of a lack of worshipping space for Muslims, religious leaders say. Tabilighi Jama'at, the Islamic group hoping to build a new facility in Canning Road, said it acted on a comprehensive study of the borough before submitting its plans.

The controversial proposals have finally been validated by Newham Council planners. The 6.3 hectare site will contain a mosque that is expected to treble the 2 to 3,000 of worshippers currently able to attend the temporary site every week. The group has also promised to include a library, dining hall, and sports pitches and a visitors' centre, all for the community.

A spokesman for the group's trustees said: "The centre currently provides much needed worship space but the current temporary outbuildings have been outgrown. There is a considerable shortage of worshipping facilities within Newham and surrounding boroughs."

He said a "comprehensive needs study" into the current and future worshipping needs of the Muslim community was carried out by Ecorys, a European research consultancy. He added: "Based on the findings of a severe shortfall in demand, an appropriate proposal was then commissioned by the trustees to effectively deal with the requirements of the Newham residents."

The group's intention to reach out to all residents has been made following accusations that Tabilghi Jama'at are isolationist and sexist. They have survived an attempt by Newham Council to remove them from the site, successfully appealing an enforcement notice served in 2010.

Former Newham Cllr Alan Craig, now co-ordinator of the Mega Mosque No Thanks campaign, said they will analyse the plans once they are made public.

He said: "Tablighi Jamaat is a fundamentalist sect that is hostile to all non-Muslim society, so they shouldn’t be allowed to build this huge platform to promote their divisive antisocial ideology.

"Further, they have a track record of deliberately creating Islamic enclaves around their mosques – which is what they've done for instance in the streets around their large mosque in the Savile Town area of Dewsbury, east Yorkshire.

"We will analyse the plans when they are published to see exactly what impact they will have on the neighbourhood and the borough."

Newham Recorder, 27 September 2012

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The Architects Journal reports that NRAP Architects have submitted an outline planning application for a 9,500-capacity mosque at the Riverine Centre in Newham and provides "exclusive images" of the plan. Unfortunately, to subscribers only.

However, the Riverine Centre website has been updated with details of the plan. You can consult an overview of the proposals here.

It would obviously be too much to ask that the right-wing press should cease referrring to the development as a "mega-mosque", but perhaps they could bring themselves to stop publishing references to and illustrations of the old Mangera Yvars design for a 12,000-capacity mosque that was scrapped five years ago.

Update:  There's also an article at Building Design, which reports:

"NRAP was appointed in 2011 and drew up plans that included retail units and 300 flats on the 6.5ha site near the Olympic Park. But these have now been dropped after the Muslim community that is funding the 9,350-capacity mosque – including 1,830 segregated places for women – objected to the idea of its donations going towards a commercial venture.

"The scheme submitted to Newham Council by the controversial Islamic missionary movement Tablighi Jamaat is for a mosque, 2,000-capacity dining hall and Islamic library, plus a sports pavilion and playing fields for the wider community. There will also be children's facilities, eight flats for imams and overnight visitors and 300 car parking spaces."

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It looks like the right-wing press is resuming its hysterical campaign against the proposed Tablighi Jamaat markaz at the Riverine Centre in Newham. "Bomb fear at mega mosque" is the shock horror headline to an article in the Daily Star Sunday, which follows the recent scaremongering report in the Evening Standard.

According to the Star: "Security forces feared extremists could use boats to smuggle explosives on to the site of a proposed mega mosque in East London during the Games. Spooks conducted a series of boating missions to test the possibility of terrorists bringing bombs into the Stratford area. Anti-terror chiefs thought they might use the River Thames, River Lea and a tributary known as the Channelsea River, which runs adjacent to the planned 12,000-seater mosque site in West Ham, East London."

For confirmation of this dubious story, for which the Star offers no sources at all, the paper turns to local right-wing Christian bigot Alan Craig, who is quoted as saying: "No doubt the security forces have been watching it. I spoke some time ago to a number of anti-terror officers about it and they were certainly watching the situation with the Olympics coming up. This site is less than half a mile from Olympic stadia. They were quite concerned." Craig adds: "Officers had been out in rubber boats on the river assessing the possibility of getting ordnance in via the river."

It was Craig who issued a disgraceful press release in July 2007 claiming that Tablighi Jamaat had inspired the attempted terrorist attacks in Glasgow and London. I suppose it's possible that anti-terror officers discussed their operational plans with this fundamentalist crank, but it strikes me as highly unlikely.

Having stirred up its readers with unsubstantiated accusations of association with terrorism, the Star concludes its report by quoting the trustees of the Riverine Centre as stating: "There are no such security concerns regarding Tablighi Jamaat. These people are just interested in constructing a building that is suitable for their faith. There is nothing sinister going on."

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Alif Academy, an independent Islamic school in Forest Gate, has been granted planning permission after attempts by Newham Council to close them down.

A public inquiry was set up by The Planning Inspectorate in February to inspect the council's enforcement notice on the grounds that the primary school and nursery was not safe or fit to operate as a school.

The enforcement notice was quashed and planning permission granted at Newham Town Hall in East Ham on May 23.

Headteacher Hasib Hikmat estimates it has cost the school £52,000 in legal fees to overturn the decision.

He said: "In a time of austerity, the council think it's fine to be spending public money, probably tens of thousands of pounds, on legally fighting something that made little sense from the beginning trying to shut down a school that provides extra capacity and jobs for local people which runs with no financial assistance from the council."

Mr Hikmat said the parents and staff were "chuffed" at the Planning Inpectorate's decision and plan to have "a very, very big party" to celebrate.

He added: "Newham is in dire need of better schools and it's opened the door to more investment in the development of industrial sites in Newham and, hopefully, more schools. We do want to build bridges with the council. We are not here to cause trouble, we are here to operate a school and invest in the community."

Now Alif Academy has planning permission, they hope to win a Nursery Education Grant to help with their development.

Newham Recorder, 30 May 2012

Newham Council does seem to have a tendency to waste public money trying to shut down local Muslim institutions. Last year the council's enforcement notice on the Tablighi Jamaat mosque in West Ham was also overturned by the Planning Inspectorate.

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