Centre must cater for all

The revised plans for the new Dudley mosque and community centre will certainly be an improvement over the current state of dereliction. However, there are still aspects of this affair that trouble me deeply.

Khurshid Ahmed states that Muslims cannot mix in pubs or places where gambling and the consumption of alcohol take place. That is, they cannot integrate with the indigenous population, because to do so is forbidden by their religion.

Such disapproval automatically carries with it a disdain for the procedures involved, which in turn implies the existence of the belief that Muslim values are correct and that the Christian majority are incorrect, or even inferior.

I trust that those responsible for this development will not attempt to force such views on the rest of us and, moreover, solicit the assent and assistance of the council in so doing. The physical fabric of any building, together with rituals and adornments such as headgear, cannot have sacred significance except in the minds of those determined to ensure that they do.

I have always believed that local and national politicians representing inner city areas have a vested interest in appeasing minority groups for reasons of electoral gain, a situation that is increasingly a cause for anxiety as ethnic groups occupy more and more of the decision making positions.

A community centre must be for all, within reason of course. Perhaps its removal from the immediate vicinity of the mosque is a sign that my fears are unjustified and that music and dancing, another taboo, are also to be allowed. Far greater men that you and I indulge in all these practices, Ahmed.

The second anxiety I have concerns the call to prayer from the minaret, which can have a devastating affect on people's lives, as I know from personal experience. Is this to be allowed and has it be included in the appropriate criteria by the planning committee?

John Morton, Elmbridge Way, Sedgley.