LONDON LETTER:Residents of leafy Sandhurst in Surrey are fighting to stop the construction of a mosque that would have 100ft minarets
SANDHURST HAS produced officers for the British army since Napoleonic times. Today, many local residents oppose plans to build a mosque, complete with two 100ft minarets, within sight of the academy.
This morning, locals will troop into the Camberley Theatre for the final day of an appeal to a decision by Surrey Heath Borough Council to refuse permission to the Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey Bengali Welfare Association.
Believing that demand for places would be high for the appeal that began on April 5th, the Planning Inspectorate introduced ticket-only admission for the 360 places, though the audience has rarely exceeded 50 in the past.
Tempers, nevertheless, are running high. The Muslim group argues that the listed Victorian-era schoolhouse that it has occupied since 1996 – when it bought it for £300,000 with the help of a Kuwaiti billionaire – no longer suits its needs and must be knocked down. Representing the group, QC Christopher Lockhart-Mummery said the building was “grossly unsuitable” for the needs of the congregation, who can “only marvel” at the space enjoyed by the Church of England’s nearby St Michael’s.
So far, 6,500 locals, supported, if carefully, by local Conservative MP Michael Gove, who is also education secretary, have signed a petition against the mosque, arguing that a domed structure, complete with two minarets, would be out of keeping with the town’s history.
Lord Guthrie, former chief of the British army’s general staff, has been but one Sandhurst graduate to wade in, expressing his “grave concern about the wisdom of allowing such a structure to proceed”.
Pushing for guarantees that the mosque would “not advocate a doctrine of hate”, Lord Guthrie went on: “As has happened in many houses of worship, the nature of mosque management can change over time as moderates are replaced by more extreme elements.”
Everyone agrees, it seems, that the former Catholic school on the London road is dilapidated, leaving the 350-strong Muslim faithful to gather in every available room, including the kitchens, for Friday prayers.
Fewer than one in 10 Muslims living around Sandhurst and Camberley worship there, leading locals to fear that the £3 million (€3.37 million) replacement – with segregated areas for men and women, a morgue and a community centre – would attract thousands more, causing traffic problems.
In the only obvious compromise offered to date, the Muslim group offered to restrict access to the minarets, though the group’s lawyers insist that they would not, in any event,
have sight of the military academy. The concession satisfies the academy, if not the locals. Last week, its chief of staff, Col Roddy Windsor, said he was “entirely satisfied that there remains very little risk” following a “robust” security assessment.
Alexis Norman of the ministry of defence’s defence infrastructure organisation equally poured cold water on the idea that the minarets endangered military security, saying that they would be inaccessible from the inside.
Petition organiser Alan Kirkland, who leads the Save Our School opposition, rejects charges of Islamophobia: “They are trying to target us as racist. I’m slightly offended by that. My ex-brother-in-law is Muslim, so are my niece and nephew,” he told the local newspaper.
“There is nothing in the Koran that says you should have domes and minarets. It doesn’t even have to face the qibla [the direction of Mecca].
“It doesn’t matter what the mosque looks like if you’re only going to pray there. They need a mezzanine floor that is for women only. To most people, that’s objectionable,” he said.
Opponents argue that the Bengali association has failed to take care of the building since it bought it, though the association’s Abdul Wasay Chowdhury argues that it was difficult to raise money for refurbishment of a building deemed unsuitable for their needs.
“If people were so concerned about heritage, why didn’t they buy the building? If we hadn’t bought it, it would have been empty for the last 15 years. That would have been worse,” he declared, pointing to a number of derelict buildings nearby.
Even the local Christian churches, acting as Churches Together, are opposed.
Last year, the group’s head, the Rev Mark Chester, of St Paul’s Church, said a mosque with “two 100ft minarets and a large elevated dome is making not so much a spiritual, as a powerful cultural, or even political statement”.
In a website message issued shortly before the planning hearing began, Churches Together said they prayed that the planning inspector’s decision would “be fair, [taking] into account genuine issues of concern”. Saying that they hoped the ruling would “contribute to better relationships in Camberley”, the local Christian leaders said: “We are committed to praying for, and building, such better relationships. We have no further comment to make.”
Putting the Muslim group’s case, Mr Lockhart-Mummery criticised Surrey Heath Borough Council’s original decision to refuse last year, saying that he had seen internal council e-mails that acknowledged that to do so because of conservation rules would offer “weak grounds”.
Equally, neither of the two minarets stand comparison with St Michael’s, he told the planning inspectors, who will make their final ruling in coming weeks. “The spire of the church is substantially higher than the minarets will be,” he told the hearing.
