It’s not often that Britons get good news from London about Islam but good news this is. A plot by a Muslim group to impose a mosque in an area where it is neither wanted not needed has, surprisingly for me, been refused by Westminster council. The plan for the mosque, in the basement and on the ground floor of the historical Trocadero complex was submitted by a group called the Aziz Foundation that claims to give out scholarships and grants to Muslims. The Aziz Foundation was set up by Azif Aziz, the chief executive of Criterion Capital the current owner of the Trocadero, and which also controls a large £2Bn property empire that is mostly concentrated in London and the South East,

According to the Guardian, which appeared, judging by the tone of the Guardian article to be supporting is at least ambivalent about this latest mosque-strosity, this planning application was subject to a large number of objections ranging from it being an inappropriate development for an entertainment area right through to how the presence of his mosque would endanger LGB and T residents and visitors to an area that has traditionally been tolerant of such people. I tend to agree with the second highlighted objection on the grounds that this is what has happened in East London.

There the growth in Islam and the large number of mosques, has more or less driven out, sometimes by violence or the threat of violence, a gay community that was somewhat tolerated even before legalisation in 1969 and where the majority of the once many gay pubs in the area have been forced to close.

The mosque promoters have been dishing out the usual bullshit about how this mosque will be for ‘everyone’. The Guardian reported the Aziz Foundation as saying:

According to the foundation, the mosque proposal would “serve the Muslim community who live and work in the West End and provide community space to those of all faiths and none”.

Now where have we heard that sort of complete bullshit before? Oh yes. We heard it from the lips of mosque promoters in Hainault a few years back where they promised that the former working man’s club that they seized with the help of the local authority, would not just be a mosque but a place for everyone. These ‘Mosque-e-teers’ promised that the building would not become a mosque and that the property would be available for normal hires. Sadly for the local non-Muslims, the mosque promoters were just bullshitting. First the building’s new management gave up the alcohol licence, then they drove away, with allegedly high fees and general obstructiveness, those non-Muslim hirers who had either used the building previously or who were new customers.

I’m afraid the bullshit about the Trodadero mosque ‘being for everyone’ is just that, complete bullshit.

I’m really pleasantly surprised that Westminster council turned down this mosque-strosity, bearing in mind the financial power of Aziz’s company and what looked to me like an astroturf campaign, possibly set up by the Aziz Foundation or some other Islamic group to flood the council with support for the mosque project. Despite pressure, Westminster council has done the right thing. This planned mosque is highly inappropriate for an entertainment area especially at a time when the West End entertainment centres such as theatres and clubs etc are suffering so badly due to a possibly unnecessary lockdown. The very last thing the West End, which lives by entertainment, is something that would put potential punters off visiting the area and it’s likely that a mosque would put off people from visiting the area.

What both interested and disgusted me about this refusal was how the BBC reported the refusal. They went full dhimmi and chose to call those objecting to the mosque ‘racist’. The vast majority of their text coverage of the mosque refusal is to scream ‘waaaa racist’. This BBC article, which I have reproduced in large part below in italics with my comments in plain text, shows that the BBC is relentlessly pro-Islam, will not give those who object to Islam a fair hearing and a prime reason to #DefundTheBBC .

The BBC said:

Plans to convert part of the Trocadero building at London’s Piccadilly Circus into a mosque which received thousands of racist comments have been withdrawn.

Note well that this is no mention of the objections that have been raised that mentioned the danger that this mosque posed to LGB and T people nor that it was out of character with the area. Their text just gives the impression that the majority of the objections were to them ‘racist’. To the BBC I would put this question: What race is Islam?

The Aziz Foundation, an Islamic education charity, submitted plans in February to turn two basement floors into a mosque for 1,000 worshippers.

Westminster City Council received 6,100 comments in support and 2,800 objecting, a high volume were “racist”.

What number of these objections could genuinely be seen or proven as ‘racist’? The BBC does not say but I suspect that there would be very few that would actually meet this standard. Again BBC what ‘race’ is Islam? Also there seems to have been no effort spent by the BBC to find out whether the support for the mosque was genuinely organic or whether it was an astroturf operation from either the Aziz Foundation or some other Islamic entity.

The Aziz Foundation has been contacted for comment about pulling the plans.

Did they reply? The BBC does not make it clear. It would have been good journalistic practise to say whether they replied or not.

Far-right group Britain First had organised a petition against the proposals.

Note here the BBC’s attempt to smear all those who objected to this mosque as ‘far right’. Now I’m no supporter or member of Britain First, some of their campaigning methods in the past have not been to my taste, but I must commend them for organising this petition. If nothing else Britain First have alerted many people to this latest mosque plot.

When the plans were submitted, the Islamic education charity said a mosque would help provide prayer space in a location where there was “a significant shortfall in places of worship”.

Again more bullshit from the mosque promoters which the BBC has not challenged or questioned. A brief look on a map shows that there are at least four mosques in easy reach of Piccadilly Circus including one in Berwick Street in Soho.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service reports that local politicians have been critical of the high volume of objections that were “racist”.

What the BBC is for some reason not reporting in their piece on the mosque is that the Local Democracy Reporting Service is a project that the BBC are themselves partners in. Isn’t this an example of dishonest journalism? It looks like that to me. After all here we have the BBC reporting the views of a news entity as if they were an independent one, which they are not as they are associated with the BBC. LDRP is a project that the BBC are heavily involved in and definitely not independent of the BBC although this article gives the impression that they are.

Conservative councillor Matthew Green, cabinet member for business and planning, said: “We find these racist, hateful comments utterly repellent and will always move to ensure that they are taken down as quickly as possible.”

He added some comments had been shared with the Met Police.

What a nasty little bedwetter this Tory councillor appears to be. Pulling comments from the public he is supposed to represent and acting like a playground grass by running to the Met about comments that he doesn’t like. If there were comments that represented a credible threat of murder then fair enough report them, this sort of conduct would indeed be a criminal matter and has been since 1861. But I suspect that rather than reporting stuff like threat to kill which any reasonable person can see is wrong, he’s merely reporting comments that are vehemently unfavourable to Islam.

Previously, Labour councillor Hamza Taouzzale said: “Some of the comments that I’ve unfortunately had to read through were horrible, they really were. They were racist, they weren’t aligned with any of our views.”

But they might be aligned with the views of the public that you are paid to represent and were elected to represent. Of course it’s not nice to read horrible stuff, but sometimes you have to as its part of your job. Put up or shut up. Councillor Taouzzale’s comments about how the public’s views are not aligned with that of some councillors beg the question: If this councillor is not representing the public who didn’t want this mosque then who the hell are they representing?

The refusal of this mosque by Westminster council is a win for common sense and justice. Creating this mosque would in my view have damaged businesses in the area, especially those businesses that rely on a clientele made up of LGB and T people. There is no way on earth would I knowingly visit gay mates in a gay pub that was near to a mosque. The risk that the pub or its customers might be harassed by Muslims coming from or going to the mosque is too great.

Finally, whilst I welcome this withdrawal and refusal of the mosque application I would advise those who are opposed to it to not rest on their laurels. As with other attempts to impose mosques where they are not wanted or needed, there is the strong possibility that these ‘mosque-e-teers’ will have another go at some point in the future. Objectors need to be organised and funded in order to head off another possible attempt to build a mosque at the Trocadero.