Tablighi Jamaat’s ‘rejection of Western democratic values’

The leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance on Newham Council, Councillor Alan Craig has called the controversial Muslim group behind the proposed Olympics mega-mosque “secretive” after they refused to attend a Muslim-organised public debate on Friday.

Cllr Craig, who spoke at the meeting, labelled the Tablighi Jamaat “controversial” and “secretive”, and added that the group’s no-show was “a classic illustration of Tablighi Jamaat’s rejection of Western democratic values and their secretive, isolationist ways of conducting themselves”.

He continued: “We can only conclude that their hidden arrogance is as large as their secretive ambitions. They reject face-to-face public debate and scrutiny of the issues. This simply feeds the silly superficial knee-jerk reactions of those like Ken Livingstone on the left and the Islamophobic racist hostility of the BNP on the right.”

Christian Today, 10 September 2007

For a statement by the trustees of the Abbey Mills mosque, see here.

See also coverage of the debate at BBC London, 10 September 2007