COMMUNITIES MINISTER ERIC PICKLES has postponed making a decision about the controversial mega-mosque for Newham, East London, until after the election.
He has been accused of ‘flunking’ the decision on the planning appeal, which was due on 16 March, by campaigner Stephen Green of Christian Voice. Mr Green learned this from a source in the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Mr Green said, “The decision not to make a decision reflects the political hot potato the ‘mega-mosque’ has become. Despite the track record of the site owners Tablighi Jamaat in laying the foundations of fundamentalism in worshippers from Richard Reid the shoe-bomber to Mohammad Sidiq Khan, the leader of the 7 July group who murdered 48 innocent people and injured 700, Mr Pickles has not found the political courage to reject their appeal against Newham Council’s refusal of their planning application.”
“Newham also secured a high court injunction compelling the group to stop using the Abbey Mills site as a place of worship, an injunction they have ignored. But it seems Mr Pickles and his party do not want to appear ‘anti-Muslim’ in the build-up to a general election.”