It's about time someone said something about the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. At one time I welcomed people of every culture to the west but now I'm sick of their never ending demands that we change to suit them. In Canada, at least, I know I'm far from alone.

Margaret, Kingston, ON Canada

I think the British are feeling down and out because their churches are less packed than the mosques. Muslims practice their religion unlike Christians. Muslims can use churches also, why no give up your Christian churches, then Muslims won't have to build mosques, we'll just use your huge unused churches.

Rosemary, Scarborough, England

Graham E. Fuller, a former CIA official and an expert on Islam, (author of The Future of Political Islam) characterized Tablighi Jamaat as a "peaceful and apolitical preaching-to-the-people movement."

Barbara Metcalf, a University of California scholar of South Asian Islam, called Tablighi Jamaat "an apolitical, quietist movement of internal grassroots missionary renewal" and compared its activities to the efforts to reshape individual lives by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Olivier Roy, a prominent authority on Islam at Paris's prestigious Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, described Tablighi Jamaat as "completely apolitical and law abiding."

Tablighi Mosque are funded by the local muslim population and are missionaries to the Muslim people. They preach remembrance of god, knowledge, 5 times prayer (namaz), etc. You can see the quotes from these famous thinkers and personalities that there is no radical element in the Tablighi Jamat movement and they are accepted everywhere.

steven, london, UK

The problem that the UK has is an unholy alliance of leftists and Islamists which is underpinned by the ideology of cultural relativism on the part of leftists and supercessionist religious supremacism on the part of Islamists. Here is a good summary of the problem:

In his excellent book, The Killing of History (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2000)Keith Windschuttle says, among many other intelligent things, as follows:

"The late Ernest Gellner pointed out the basic logical flaws in cultural relativism. In his book Postmodernism, Reason and Religion, Gellner showed that relativists are saddled with two unresolvable dilemmas. They endorse as legitimate other cultures that do not return the compliment. Some other cultures, of which one of the best known is Islam, will have no truck with relativism of any kind. The devout are totally confident of the universalism of their own beliefs which derive from the dictates of God, an absolute authority who is external to the world and its cultures. They regard a position such as postmodern cultural relativism as profoundly mistaken and, moreover, debasing. Relativism devalues their faith because it reduces it to merely one of many equally valid systems of meaning. So, entailed within cultural relativism is, first, an endorsement of absolutisms that deny it, and, second, a demeaning attitude to cultures it claims to respect." (p. 301-2)

Mentat_99, Makkah,

The good Reverend makes an excellent point: the slight majority of muslims in Britain are Deobandis, which are not known for their theological tolerance of very much, and which are being preached to by the likes of Saudis and worse - witness Omar Bakri and the utter tourniquet Anwar Choudary. Individuals might vary, of course, but there remains a strong minority of opinion in the islamic community which exhibits a remarkable intolerance of anything deemed antithetical to islam...which encompasses a great deal that Britons consider crucial to their civilization. Perhaps Rv. Ruoff's idea is not so extreme: when the majority of mosques in Britain are in the hands of islamic conservatives, what possible reason could be conjured up to allow more of them to be constructed?

I invite the readers to consider Robert Spencer's site:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/

for a far more complete treatment of the social problems facing us today from islamic conservatism.

GeoffP

GeoffP, Philadelphia, PA, USA

When will people learn, throughout Islamic history the building of a mosque, and the call to prayer in an area signified the conquest of that area, a little like Neil Armstrong planting a US flag on the moon to symbolically claim the flag for the 'USA'. He knew this was a purely symbolic act relating to the conquest of land or opposing armies in the past. Unfortunately islam is still stuck in the 7th century AD, and these conquests are very real and very dangerous, because once a land (or people) is muslim, it is always muslim and once under the shadow of a mosque sharia law could be made to be the dominant force for ALL not just the muslims. Because of this 'conquest' the "right" to operate sharia will, if the situations are right,l be invoked.

Paul, Newport, Wales

Can you stop Christians attacking Muslim countires one after another. 3 million just killed in Iraq. Would you?

Shuja, Toronto, Canada

She's right we have to ban foreign funding of mosques and ban at least some sects from building more, notably the Tablighis and their militant megamosque. I don't know that we can justify a complete ban, but without some obvious sign soon that the Islamic tide is receding in the UK public anxieties will just keep on rising to the danger point. If our moderate parties don't take matters in hand by ending immigration from Islamic countries and banning Saudi funding of mosques, the crazy extremists of the BNP will get far too much power.

Simon, London,

How about Elizabeth, Queen of England, Defender of the Muslim faith. Why not? After all Britain is the second (after the United States) most democratic and tolerant country in the World.

Victor, St Petersburg, Russia

Quote: no more mosques should be built in Britain until all persecution of Christians in Muslim nations had ceased. Alison Ruoff.

Quote:“The focus of this lady on mosques and her call not to build anymore highlights her own insecurities.

“These kinds of comments you would expect to come from some one from the BNP not the church. Inayat Bunglawala,

Yea right pull the other one Inayat Bunglawala, who'd do you think your trying to kid?

No mosque = No sharia law.... Well said that lady

Aiddy, MK,

People do not realise that The mosque is the PROTECTOR of Christianity,at a time when Christianity is dying down and only about 6% go to the church?:
In the mosque we teach about:
-GOD,the Creator,same GOD of the Christians
-the great noble life of Jesus,son of the great lady ,the Virgin Mary
-The beautiful details/charactersof the life of the Virgin Mary,
Which make her a model to all the women in the world
-All ten Commandments
-All the Christian values:love,care,morality,peace,neighbour care...A new mosque,is no doubt the best investment of Christianity!

Dr A.Majid Katme, London, UK

Well done Alison Ruoff!! This seems to be a very brave and yet very reasonable statement to make. Thank you that a woman has courage to make such a statement and say what most people in this country actually feel.

Why should we allow and endorse such places when it has been shown that such places act as centres of terrorists who openly declare war on Christians and on "Christian" nations such as the UK.
When the death threats stop then perhaps the policy could be changed.
But the death threats won't stop and Muslims will not allow themselves to be subject to British law.

Ron , Bedford, UK

"The minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks, the believers our soldiers." Famous Turkish poem. Care to get real, Britain, and realise that Islam is a political ideology bent on world domination?

Kate, london,

“If you wish to build a mosque and you get approval from the local council then you have every right provided you can finance it and you have permission. All communities must be allowed to provide a place of worship. "
Inayat Bunglawala, Muslim Council of Britain

Oh yes, but we are constantly being told that muslims are educationally under-performing, and are in the low range of income earners, or 'on benefits' .

So just exactly where is the £2million - £3 million pounds coming from that their 'communities' find to keep building mosques ?

Either it is coming from Middle East states like Saudi Arabia ( much of it does ), or we are funding it as muslims give from their 'benefits' every week.

What needs to happen is that all external funding of mosque building is made illegal, and every penny of all sources of income for the building of a mosque should be declared and available for public scrutiny..

The Saudis see mosque building as a Trojan Hor

Tom Wilson, London,

The mosques that I've seen really do transform the character and appearance of a place.

Whilst driving through Bradford a little while ago I saw a large moque which although I wouldn't say was attractive was certainly interesting - in a wind turbine sort of way, but it did dominate the area.
As I followed the road further along I could see, partly obscured by other buildings, something else being built ahead of me, certainly large and definitely imposing. My first initial thoughts were - it is some kind of citadel, perhaps a new prison!
As I progressed and my view improved it quickly became apparent that the construction was to be a mosque.

This shocked me - rather than it being a sympathetic icon - I saw a statement of power and domination and this un-nerved me somewhat. On its own it was quite formidable but with the other towering mosques peppering the skyline I felt like an alien passing through my home county.

This was not integration but colonisation.

Nathan, Inverness, UK

I think Mrs. Ruoff is dead right. If the 'mega-mosque' is allowed to be built heaven help us all!

M.Robinson, London,

Super Mosques are built for political purposes only, when built outside of traditional Islamic states. What is wrong with using pre-existing and unimposing structures? Quite simple actually, they are built to show that they have come, they have conquered, they will be accepted, and they will be doing all they can to change the political landscape of the host country through over sized political/religious symbolism. This is a shame really as Christianity is deemed politically incorrect and Christian religious symbols and structures disappear so as not to offend newcomers who disagree with the principle faith of the host country.

Douglas Cochrane, Halifax,