She is our Queen, say proud Muslim leaders in royal visit

www.telegraph.co.uk ^ | Friday 2 August 2002 | Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent

[It'salmosttolate]

She is our Queen, say proud Muslim leaders in royal visit

By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
(Filed: 01/08/2002)

The Queen made her first visit to a British mosque yesterday in the cause of inter-faith tolerance and asked: "Which direction is Mecca?"

She slipped off her shoes to enter the Islamic Centre in Scunthorpe, as part of efforts to repair relations between the Christian and Muslim communities after the September 11 attacks on America.

The Queen pays her first visit to a British mosque during a visit to Scunthorpe yesterday

The centre was included in the Queen's Golden Jubilee tour after it was vandalised in the anti-Islamic backlash. Its windows were smashed and slogans reading "Kill Muslims" were daubed on its walls.

The Queen, wearing a lime-green suit and matching hat, sat in a specially screened-off area furnished with an armchair and footstool to swap her black leather shoes for a pair of skin-coloured slippers.

As her feet sank into the new carpet laid in the centre's prayer room in her honour, she asked whether the prayer-mat pattern woven into it was aligned to Mecca.

Later, after unveiling a plaque commemorating her visit, the Queen was presented with a copy of the Koran - in both Arabic and English - which she passed carefully to an aide. The book will be kept in the royal archive at Windsor Castle.

The Queen's visit provoked warnings from traditionalist Protestants who said that she was in danger of compromising her role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

David Phillips, the general secretary of the Church Society, said that she risked "sending out the message that all faiths are equally valid".

But Buckingham Palace said she was determined to recognise the growth in religious and cultural diversity in the past 50 years. Earlier this year she went to a Hindu temple and a Jewish museum and today she will visit a Sikh temple in Leicester.

Jawaid Ishaq, an Islamic Centre executive member who wrote to the Palace suggesting the visit, said: "We are British Muslims and she is our Queen. Her visit is not only a tribute to the 5,000 Muslims in the Scunthorpe area but to the 3.5 million Muslims throughout the United Kingdom."

Later, at a festival of nations in Scunthorpe Market Square, the Queen and Prince Philip "brought to life" two ceremonial Chinese lions, by painting their eyes with brushes

[It'salmosttolate]

The UNITED KINGDOM --- That anything like the UNITED NATIONS?

Any one here still like UNITED KINGDOM/Queenie?

[IronJack]

How touching. Then when she's done, perhaps she'd like to fly to Manhattan and lay a wreath on the smoldering ruins of the Trade Center and its 3,000 dead. Or take a tour of the nearly-repaired Pentagon and see if she can pick up any body parts from the rubble there. Or that sacred hillside in Pennsylvania where courage met infamy.

"Unto all things, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven." This is the season of harvest, the bitter harvest of murder and mayhem. It is decidedly NOT the time to be kind or compassionate or even understanding.

Sometimes it's okay to slip the reins on anger and give the horse its run.

[texasbluebell]

Taking advice from her son, no doubt.

I read some months ago that moslems living in Britain don't even consider themselves to be British, but direct their allegiance to Islam only, which now we know is true for most if not all moslems around the world.

Will the queen one day be head of the the Islamic Republic of Great Britain? Or will that fate befall Charles?

[IronJack]

... Buckingham Palace said she was determined to recognise the growth in religious and cultural diversity in the past 50 years.

Typical "inclusionary" rhetoric. How has that "religious and cultural diversity" benefited the UK? I would hazard a guess that its growth has exactly paralleled a decline in national unity and social cohesion.

"... Her visit is not only a tribute to the 5,000 Muslims in the Scunthorpe area but to the 3.5 million Muslims throughout the United Kingdom."

Locusts don't infest a corn field as quickly or as thoroughly as this pestilence invades a society. Or do as much damage.

Time to raise the drawbridge.

[Guillermo]

Disgusting.

This appeasement is sickening. In the end it will be even worse than Chamberlain's appeasement of Nazi Germany.

[night reader]

...as part of efforts to repair relations between the Christian and Muslim communities after the September 11 attacks on America.
=============================
Seems to me that the Muslims should be visiting Christian sites. They owe us the apologies and sympathies. We owe them nothing.

[tonycavanagh]

Thats down right unfair IronJack, the Queen in a Mosque in London has no bearing or relation to what happened on the 9/11, that was a terrorits attack launched by a Muderouse Walter Mitty type with delusions of granduar leading a host of dead beats and losers.

Even after three tours of North Ireland and losin some good friends I did not hate all the Irish people or Americans even though it was Americans who mainly funded the IRA with collections raised in Bars in the States.

Tony

[Publius6961]

She slipped off her shoes to enter the Islamic Centre in Scunthorpe, as part of efforts to repair relations between the Christian and Muslim communities after the September 11 attacks on America.

If I understand Islam correctly, she can not enter the men's section of the mosque, queen or not.

As for going through the exercise, it must be a lot more humiliating for a queen than, say, for Bush to pretend to be ignorant of the true nature of Islam for political purposes.
I was embarrassed then. I imagine many Britons are embarrassed now.

[TontoKowalski]

Well, the whole thing has me confused.

From the title of the article, I thought Cynthia McKinney was the subject...

[hellinahandcart]

Then when she's done, perhaps she'd like to fly to Manhattan and lay a wreath on the smoldering ruins of the Trade Center and its 3,000 dead.

Prince Andrew was at Ground Zero last September. While in town, he attended services at my church and gave a reading from the Book of Ruth. I'm sure you know which verse.

Damned if I'll ever set foot in a mosque myself, but then I'm not the head of a government.

[It'salmosttolate]

Bin Laden called UK 260 times http://www.FreeRepublic.com/focus/news/652327/posts

[Jakarta ex-pat]

Muderouse Walter Mitty type with delusions of granduar leading a host of dead beats and losers.

I wish you were right, but you're wrong.

These people are dangerous.

The queen should not be appeasing.

who knows who smashed the windows?

We are at war.

With an opposition that plans to wipe us all out.

It's time to "draw a line in the sand."

BTW...Good to see ya back Tony!

Most people don't recognize me as being British. If they recognize me at all!

You are the Brits most "visible" name on this board.

Although I often disagree with you,

It's good to have you back.

Keep smiling,

Philip.

[swarthyguy]

"moslems living in Britain don't even consider themselves to be British, but direct their allegiance to Islam only"

There was a newsreport in the early 90's that imams in England claimed exemption from British Law and wanted sharia to apply to all muslims. Sorry, no link, the story was from the 92-94 timeframe.

[Aggie Mama]

Exactly. We need to repair nothing!

[IronJack]

The Irish in America may have contributed to the IRA, but there was no endorsement of it by anyone in any official capacity in this country. Can you imagine your outrage if our president had sat down with the local Provo goon right after they'd bombed a nightclub or shot up a busload of crippled children?

I know the Queen is not advocating the mayhem perpetrated on us by the Muslim madmen. But this conciliatory effort reeks of accommodation and appeasment, a lesson Britons should have learned all too well from history.

The UK, like the US, is bent on appearing "tolerant" and "multicultural." Well, it ill behooves any nation to tolerate its own infection, or to embrace all other cultures at the expense of its own.

[Travis McGee]

The Queen made her first visit to a British Nazi Bundhall yesterday in the cause of inter-ideology tolerance and asked: "Which direction is Berlin?"

She slipped on her swastika armband to enter the Nazi Centre in Scunthorpe, as part of efforts to repair relations between the British and Nazi communities.

[tonycavanagh]

re : , but there was no endorsement of it by anyone in any official capacity in this country.

Are you sure about that, I can remember quite a few occasions when individuals from both side of your house played up to the Irish vote, and one of Your New York Mayors told Prince Charles of for the way we were treating the Irish.

I remember the American press during the Hunger Strikes.

The people the Queen is visiting are British citizens who happen to be Muslim. She is there Queen because they are her Citizens, and from all press accounts they were more than pleased to greet her.

Not all Muslims is Palsetine, most Muslims in Britian tend to be Middle Class who are more than happy to leave there own country,

Yes we have some problems but not as bad as the press maintains.

If I was to beleive the press who hunger for a story then I am a war mongering thug who is only fit to make war on children, I kept that headline for a long time, but lost it a few years ago.

Cheers Tony

[tonycavanagh]

pardon the bad spelling and grammer, the missis is chivvying me out the door we are late.

Cheers Tony

[IronJack]

I was a reporter during the hunger strikes and I remember Bobby Sands dying. I wasn't particularly sympathetic to the cause, but I had to concede he was effective at focusing attention on the strife, and in a less fulminating way than the IRA usually does.

A mayor in America is a small-time local official, in no way representative of even his community, let alone the national sentiment. I'm not sure to whom you refer, but I suspect this was a play for the Irish ward vote in New York.

I have great respect for the Queen and appreciate the difficult position she is in. And at least she is spreading the "tolerance" out by visiting other religious institutions as well as a mosque. She is obviously keen to the implications her visits could have.

Rule Britannia!

[iconoclast]

Yes we have some problems but not as bad as the press maintains.

Hell no, you don't have a problem. You just let 'em train up in your London mosques and then our own useful idiots let 'em clamber into our country to blast us to Kingdom come.

Oh well, all bow to diversity.