Islam Rising: Piccadilly Mosque

[Khandro]

Do you think it appropriate for the calls to prayer, the 'Adhan', which is the Islamic call to public prayer from a mosque recited by a muezzin at prescribed times of the day. (Adhan is recited from the mosque five times daily, traditionally from the minaret) will sound out in Piccadilly circus, or that it is in fact a suitable place for a mosque anyway?

The new 'Trocadero' mosque, financed by a Muslim billionaire who it seems owns large swathes of London already. His initiative is of course welcomed by the London mayor & has been given the approval by the Labour-led London council.

[andy-hughes]

Do I assume that you object to the venerable Circus being polluted with the sound of a 'non-British' religion?

That appears to be the tone of your announcement.

[douglas9401]

I visited The Trocadero in, I think, the 1980s.

It was unutterably *** and this kind of stuff confirms that nothing has improved in the intervening decades.

[douglas9401]

Is intervening the right word?

Who cares, down with this kind of thing, as someone once said.

[Gromit]

The ‘mosque’ is in fact a prayer space that was previously the cinema in the Trocadero entertainment complex. The rest of the building is an hotel and business centre. It does not have a minaret.

[calmck]

Fond memories of the Trocadero and Edmundo Ross in my teens

[johnk]

NO

[barry1010]

The space has been empty for years. The outside appearance won't change and only the sign over the door will give any indication that it is the 'Picadilly Community Centre'. The existing hotel with 740 rooms and a rooftop bar will still occupy the upper floors, there will be no minaret or calls to prayer.
It is just a community centre and prayer room in the basements of the building for up to 390 people.
I can't see why people are getting in a tizz about this.

[Zacs-Master]

Khandro's been getting his info from some right wing loonie source. Again.

[1ozzy]

//It is just a community centre and prayer room in the basements of the building for up to 390 people//

Apparently no problems Khandro.
Unless you're a subterranean dweller.

[Spungle]

Another day in Sadiqistan.

[Untitled]

the problem here is not a muslim prayer space it is allowing billionaires to infest our capital and buy everything in sight

[andy-hughes]

'Infest' - ?

[barry1010]

Who else should buy multimillion pound properties?
'Sorry, we can't let you buy that because you can afford it' doesn't make sense to me

[Old_Geezer]

I don't believe is is appropriate to allow any such calling to be inflicted on the local population. It seems to be yet another thing, presumably contrary to noise pollution laws, that councils think ok to ignore.

I appreciate that we allow church bells, but the difference there is that church bells are traditional in the UK, and if you choose to move to near a church you know what is normal there. Allowing the addition of other, foreign, noise nuisances, simply doesn't compare.

[sandyRoe]

I believe there's an 'Islamic Centre' in Brewer St, Soho.
That seems incongruous in so many ways.

[barry1010]

There will be no calls to prayer from this building in London.
When I worked next to a huge purpose built mosque complete with minaret the calls to prayer could not be heard from outside the mosque. Many councils simply don't allow it or restrict it to a few days a year at specified times, just as church bell ringing is restricted.

[Old_Geezer]

Calls seemed a big part of the OP. If it's just a change of use I'm unaware that there is any reasonable issue with it.

[naomi24]

barry, how do you know there will be no calls to prayer?

[ichkeria]

There won't be calls to prayer. I doubt they'd be heard anyway over the roar of the traffic :-)

(One of my great memories is hearing the muezzin competing with the church bells in a town in Albania :-) )

[naomi24]

How do you know that, ich?