EDL - Dudley mosque plan is scrapped

Plans to build an £18million mosque in Dudley town centre have been scrapped, the Express & Star can reveal today.

The scheme to build a mosque with 65ft minaret on derelict land in Hall Street attracted huge protests, but has now been ditched by the Dudley Muslim Association.

Deputy council leader, Les Jones, told the Express & Star today the DMA had agreed instead to redevelop the existing mosque in Castle Hill, after months of delicate negotiations.

The proposal has been dogged by controversy from day one and two petitions of more than 50,000 signatures were gathered in opposition.

People objected saying the mosque would dominate the skyline and be out of keeping with the town’s medieval character. They also objected to the mosque being built on land designated for employment use.

Despite Dudley Council throwing out the application in 2007 it was granted at an appeal the following year by a government inspector.

In 2009 the council launched a High Court bid against the inspector’s decision but the judge upheld the ruling, granting outline planning permission.

Councillor Jones said since then the council has been in talks with the DMA. He said: “We have reached an agreement with the DMA not to develop on land in Hall Street.

“The current mosque is not really fit for purpose and we have been working with them to come up with some plans and would have been looking to submit an outline planning application in the next few months.”

Today’s announcement comes as a handful of anti-mosque campaigners scaled the walls of the derelict factory in Hall Street for a rooftop protest.

Councillor Malcolm Davis, who has campaigned against the mosque plan, said: “I’m delighted with the outcome. If it has taken months of negotiation to achieve this result then I applaud that.”

By Heather Loat

Car bomb found in new York

Belgium bans the burkha

I always think the sight of seeing a woman covered head to toe revealing only their eyes is somewhat disturbing.

Why on earth would a woman want to dress like that? Isn't it hot and sweaty under there? Isn't it heavy? It certainly can't be comfortable and it surely doesn't conform to elf and safety regulations. So why?

Well, apparently it is to 'cover their bodies and conceal their form' thus preserving the woman's honour. It is also for the woman's safety. The sight of a woman's body is quite exciting for muslim men who have difficulty in keeping their hands, and other body parts, to themselves. And as if raping a woman isn't bad enough, the woman is to blame unless she can find four, yes FOUR, witnesses to back up her story.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel; from July, the burkha will be banned from all public places in Belgium.

Anyone covering their face in a public place, including the street, shops, offices, schools and hospitals will be fined £110 for the first offence and if they refuse to pay or are caught a second time, they can be jailed for a week.

From mid-September, France plans on fining women up to £600 for hiding their face and sending their husbands to jail if they have forced them to be worn.

Now then, can we have it banned in Britain, please?

Female suicide bombers in Moscow

Two female suicide bombers killed at least 37 people and injured 65 on packed Moscow metro trains today.

President Dmitry Medvedev declared Russia would act 'without compromise' to root out terrorists as he ordered airports to be put on alert and security to be stepped up throughout the country.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the worst attack on the Russian capital for six years, but suspicion will fall on Muslim militants from the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency spreading from Chechnya to neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia.

Witnesses spoke of panic at the two underground stations, with people falling over each other in dense smoke and dust as they tried to escape.

The first blast tore through the second carriage of a metro train just before 8am as it stood at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia's main domestic security service FSB. It killed at least 23 people.

About 40 minutes later, another blast in the second carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury metro station, opposite Gorky Park, killed 12 to 14 more people.

Russian leaders had declared victory in their battle with Chechen separtists who fought two wars with Moscow. But while violence subsided in Chechnya, it has spread and intensified in neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia, where clan rivalries overlap with criminal gangs and Islamist militants.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told reporters that female suicide bombers had carried out the attacks.

Prosecutors said they had opened a 'terrorism investigation' after forensic experts found the remains of a female bomber.

Vladimir Putin cemented his power in 1999 in launching an ultimately successful war to overthrow a separatist government lodged in the Chechen capital Grozny.


Russian leaders fear the loss of this region endangering energy transit routes could destabilise other areas in a country spanning 11 time zones.

'I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body,' an unidentified man who was on the train at Park Kultury told RIA news agency in a video interview.

More HERE 

EDL: Uniting the English people

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