The right-wing evangelical organisation Christian Voice – the same group that threatened to prosecute Islamic bookshops under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act for selling the Qur’an – has announced that it is holding a prayer meeting this morning at the site of the proposed Islamic centre at Newham in East London. They explain:

“With the threat of a planning application for the megamosque any day now, the need for prayer at the site, which is less than a mile from the 2012 Olympic village, is urgent. Certainly, one can pray in church or at home, but the act of going to the site has a spiritual dimension. It focuses our prayer and the effort of going shows God our prayer is serious, an important matter when we are praying for miracles.

“And we believe our prayer is having results. It is being felt in the existing mosque, a collection of old industrial buildings, and our prayers for confusion have, we believe, already disrupted the megamosque plans. We have also prayed in support of local councillor Alan Craig, whom the Lord has placed in Newham’s council chamber for just such a time as this.”

But don’t get the idea that Christian Voice is moved by hostility towards adherents of another religion. Not at all: “Love for God and for our neighbour is what motivates us, so while we shall pray against Islam, we shall also pray for salvation for Muslims and for them to be brought into the kingdom of God by faith in the incarnate Son of God, the crucified, risen, ascended Lord Jesus Christ.”