A group set up to campaign against a prayer centre in Shrewsbury is just another BNP front. The group “Against the Shrewsbury Muslim prayer centre” is complaining that Shropshire Council has sold Column Lodge to the Shropshire Bangladesh Welfare Society in a £215,000 deal.
The former church, based near to the Column roundabout, was home to the council’s registration services before they were transferred to the Guildhall in Frankwell last year. Now a group has been set up on facebook to campaign against the prayer centre. But as usual, it’s not just concerned residents worried about parking, the price of fish or the bad weather, it’s just another BNP front.
Three of the four admins for the group are school children, and the group’s founder is Joe Rushworth, a BNP member from Shrewsbury who seems to have a military obsession. Also posting on there are a host of other well known racists from the area and one “Jay Casuals” who is in fact, Jamie Butler who has attended a number of far-right demonstrations, including one by the CxF.
The page is dripping with racism and anti-Muslim sentiment. It is not a group of concerned citizens, but another group full of Nazi cranks.
For the BNP’s involvement in the campaign against the prayer centre see here and here. For other far-right involvement see here.
Alas for the far-right Islamophobes, their “Against the Shrewsbury Muslim prayer centre” Facebook page has been hacked and retitled “Shrewsbury Against Bigots”.
West Mercia Police have also issued a statement in response to complaints about the original page. They say they are conducting an investigation and add: “A man in his 20s was arrested on Thursday, 9 May, on suspicion of using words or carrying out behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred in connection with earlier comments made on a social media site about the centre. The man is currently on police bail while officers continue their inquiries.”