“Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, is calling for a Muslim prayer centre to be installed in the House of Commons. His idea is being ‘seriously considered’ by the powerful all-party Commons Administration Committee. Mr Khan said: ‘The Anglicans are the only people among the staff and politicians at Westminster who have a place to pray. Even the Roman Catholics do not have somewhere they can use all the time. The place needs to be dragged into the 21st Century. It is only right that Parliament should provide a prayer room for people of other faiths.’ A spokesman for the Administration Committee said that they were ‘seriously considering’ the proposal, but that a multi-faith prayer room would be more appropriate. Someone needs to tell them, though, that Muslims often refuse to share prayer facilities, regarding other faiths as having ‘polluted’ them.”

National Secular Society news report, 21 October 2005