The West Ham Mega-Mosque – Latest Plans Submitted

by Esmerelda Weatherwax (October 2012)

Mary Jackson and I have been keeping an eye on the plans since 2007 when I wrote this. The grandiose plans of that scheme were rejected by the council, the London Borough of Newham, and the trustees fell out with the first firm of architects and their second replacements in any event.

BD online (free subscription required) says that the plans are for:

 . . . a mosque, 2,000-capacity dining hall and Islamic library, plus a sports pavilion and playing fields for the wider community. There will also be children’s facilities, eight flats for imams and overnight visitors and 300 car parking spaces.

The mosque, which will include two 15m minarets, has been scaled back from original plans to accommodate 12,000 worshippers, but will still be roughly the size of Battersea Power Station. The materials will be dark brick with aluminium alloy screens treated with a shimmering copper finish. These will be used as cladding in some places and in others as perforated veils over glass.

From the outside the roof appears flat but inside 35 coffers create a small dome.

Battersea Power Station famously appeared on the cover of an album by Pink Floyd. Below are some examples of the plans submitted.

These are architects views of the proposals looking north, north-east and south.

This picture was taken across the space where the tennis courts are proposed.

Today men seemed to be working on tubs of sunflowers, when they were not throwing stones into the river, disturbing the birds on the island in the Channelsea. The island, a haven for wildlife and untouched for many years belongs to the Riverine Centre but does not seem to feature in the plans, so far as I can tell at this stage.

The opposition to Tablighi Jamaats plans for expansion has been co-ordinated so far by the organisation MegaMosque No Thanks led by Alan Craig former leader of the Christian People’s Alliance party which was once the opposition to the Labour Party on Newham Council, when they had an opposition. They took out a half page advertisement in the Newham recorder this week. The paper also printed an article in which Alan Craig said “Tablighi Jamaat is a fundamentalist sect that is hostile to all non-Muslim society so they shouldn’t be allowed to build this huge platform to promote their divisive anti-social ideology. They have a track record of deliberately creating Islamic enclaves around their mosques” Mr Craig said, giving Dewsbury in Yorkshire as an example. The article also included a description by Dr Jenny Taylor of publishers Lapido Media who has an interest in Tablighi Jamaat. She describes being allowed into the Markazi in Dewsbury but having to conduct her interview with her back turned to her interviewee. This isn't on-line – hence the scan from the paper copy.

Danny Lockwood in his book The Islamic Republic of Dewsbury describes an attempt to show the Dewsbury Savile Town Markazi to his lawyer.

Walking around the site today another similarity struck me. Savile Town is bounded by the River Calder on one side and the Railway line on the other. The road through can and has been blocked (in particular during the ijtema pilgrimage of 1994) allowing no-one in or out. The buses have been stoned so many times the bus company has re-routed the service. I now firmly believe that gathering of tents and marquees I noticed in 1992 or 3 was the Riverine Centre hosting a similar ijtema. The West Ham site is bounded by the Channelsea River to the east, the District Line to the south and the Jubilee Line to the west. It too could be easily cut off and defended. Basically it is a fortress.

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