MOSQUE DEBATE
HOTS UP!
What an
absolute cock-up! First it is then it isn't, the police say: "Thames Valley Police is
investigating a phone call, which was alleged to be threatening in nature. they then say "No formal complaint has been made to police but the incident is
being treated as a potential criminal offence and is being investigated."??
what is it to be yes or no? Surely unless George Wissinger makes a formal
complaint then the police are wasting their time?
Now George could end up getting reprisals
for withdrawing permission, I'm sure he wishes the whole thing would
go away, and George claims he knows all about discrimination he has had his shop
windows broken many times, I wonder if the police acted as quick?
Quite clearly
this whole sad escapade lays firmly at the feet of West Oxfordshire District
Council Planning Department. Though many felt this wasn't the right place for
a place of worship they went through the right channels to register their views
only to be totally ignored by WODC, particularly as WODC themselves said after
objecting to the Sainsbury's application citing the town centre needed to be
preserved as a shopping centre, then allowing a shop a change of use,
particularly it being small and ideal as a starter unit one that a local
electrical shop started in business. The town became involved in the Mary
Porter scheme to investigate and rejuvenate town centres and then WODC allows
this.So why did people object? Well firstly it wasn't just against "a place of worship", apart from losing a retail space many felt the premises was unsuitable for such use, firstly the room itself 6.95m x 5.060m with a 1m x 3.62m toilet area, this is approx 22ft x 16ft with a toilet area 10ft x 3ft taken out of it, if an application to use this room as a nursery or some other meeting place WODC would have rigorous applied conditions such as health and safety regulations, adequate provision for parking, conditions of opening times and use, max occupation concerning fire regulations all the usual stipulations concerning public buildings and yet for this application it appears nothing.
Of course Mr Hasan did himself no favours, firstly he indicated mildly prayers would be a few minutes each day but once the application was granted he joyously made it clear it would be open from sunrise until one hour after sunset for 10-minute prayers five times a day. bearing in mind that in summertime that's one hell of a day for residents that live nearby, he originally said it was only for the local town community, then he added 'At the moment, people come from Moreton, Stow, Shipston, Woodstock and Witney to pray in Chippy' so what does he do,taxi them in?
So what have
the media done to help? Again quite clearly it's a good racial story,
as the old adage goes 'never let the truth get in the way of a good story' the
press have concentrated on an aparent phone call George received, then one radio presenter
actually asked 'is Chipping Norton racist' obviously assuming the phone call
came from someone in Chippy, ignoring the fact the story has gone global,
and I suspect the media will get more mileage out of it yet. One radio presenter asked one nearby business what he thought of the situation, the poor bloke could
hardly say anything negative even if he wanted too for fearing being classed as
racist could he?
So here we
have it, just like the "Chipping Norton Set" a name conjured up by a journalist
from a national newspaper attempting to discredit or make fun of a select few in the area, for another national newspaper to slag off Chippy in general, as I said
before 'never let the truth get in the way of a good story'