The mosque will cost 22 million euros (32.6 million dollars) to build and is to comprise a prayer hall measuring 2,500 square metres and a 25-metre high minaret.

Plans for the project also call for the construction of a library, an amphitheatre and a restaurant. The foundation stone is to be laid in April, with the mosque scheduled to open in 2011.

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Ministers hoped to change the country radically and ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’. But Mr Neather said senior Labour figures were reluctant to discuss the policy, fearing it would alienate its ‘core working-class vote’.
On Question Time, Mr Straw was repeatedly quizzed about whether Labour’s immigration policies had left the door open for the BNP.

Writing in the Evening Standard, Mr Neather revealed the ‘major shift’ in immigration policy came after the publication of a policy paper from the Performance and Innovation Unit, a Downing Street think tank based in the Cabinet Office.

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Daily Express: A RADICAL Muslim group sparked outrage last night as it launched a massive campaign to impose sharia law on Britain.

The fanatical group Islam4UK has ­announced plans to hold a potentially ­incendiary rally in London later this month.

And it is calling for a complete upheaval of the British legal system, its officials and ­legislation.

Members have urged Muslims from all over Britain to converge on the capital on October 31 for a procession to demand the full implementation of sharia law.

On a website to promote their cause they deride British institutions, showing a mock-up picture of Nelson’s Column surmounted by a minaret.

Plans for the demonstration have been ­delivered to the Metropolitan Police and could see up to 5,000 extremists marching to demand the controversial system.

The procession – dubbed March 4 Shari’ah – will start at the House of Commons, which the group’s website describes as the “very place where the lives of millions of people in the UK are changed and it is from here where unjust wars are launched”.

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M&C:

Sarrazin, 64, had said in an interview that many of Berlin’s Turkish and Arab population were ‘unwilling, and unable to integrate,’ and worsened conditions in the German capital.

‘This is outrageous,’ said Kenan Kolat, who heads the Turkish Association in Germany.

‘Sarrazin often overshoots the mark and gives no thought to the consequences of his statements,’ Kolat told German Press Agency dpa.

‘A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose number has grown through bad policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable vendors,’ Sarrazin told the culture magazine Lettre International.

‘Forty per cent of all births occur in the underclasses,’ Sarrazin said of Berlin, adding that this was dragging down standards of education.

‘Our educated population is becoming stupider from generation to generation,’ the former politician added.

While migrant families from East European, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian backgrounds had integrated within a generation, Sarrazin said the children and even grandchildren of Turkish and Arab immigrants failed to learn decent German and did badly at school.

The Turkish-German Employers’ Association and the regional Turkish Association for Berlin-Brandenburg rejected Sarrazin’s remarks.

‘This is absolutely below the belt line and the content is absolute rubbish,’ said Safter Cinar of the regional Turkish Association.

Sarrazin, who was Berlin’s finance minister until he joined the Bundesbank earlier this year, said 70 per cent of Turks and 90 per cent of the Arabic population rejected the German state.

Les mer monstersandcritics.com

Germany today:

Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang are charged with breaching Section 5 of the Public Order Act – causing harassment, alarm or distress. If convicted, they face fines of £2,500 each and a criminal record.

The Muslim woman was staying at the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool, which is run by the Vogelenzangs, when a conversation arose between the hoteliers and their guest about her faith.

It is understood that among the topics debated was whether Jesus was a minor prophet, as Islam teaches, or whether he was the Son of God, as Christianity teaches.

Among the things Mr Vogelenzang, 53, is alleged to have said is that Mohammad was a warlord. His wife, 54, is said to have stated that Muslim dress is a form of bondage for women.

The conversation, on March 20, was reported by the woman to Merseyside Police. Officers told the couple that they wanted to interview them over the incident.

After being questioned on April 20, they were interrogated again three months later before being charged on July 29 with a religiously-aggravated public order offence. They appeared in court on August 14 and are now awaiting trial.

Mr and Mrs Vogelenzang do not accept that they were threatening or abusive in any way. David White, who is representing them, said that they believe they have the right to defend their religious beliefs.

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Telegraph: Home Office staff have been warned not to eat in front of their Muslim colleagues during the month of Ramadan.

A five-page advice booklet tells civil servants that eating lunch near a colleague who is fasting can make them feel hungry.

The Home Office Islamic Network produced the advice which said: “In practical terms, please be sensitive when eating lunch near a Muslim colleague who is fasting.

“This can make an individual feel hungrier and make it more challenging to observe the fast.”

It also urged Home Office managers to be flexible over working hours because Muslims may be following a different routine during Ramadan, which finished this weekend.

“The most likely need Muslim staff may present to managers during this period is for flexibility around working hours and break times as those fasting will have a slightly different routine from usual. Managers and Muslim staff should discuss what their needs are and be responsive and sensitive,” the document said.

Managers were also told: “Muslim staff who are fasting and whose environment allows it may wish to set out for work earlier than usual and finish their working day correspondingly early…in line with flexi-time arrangements.”

During the holy month devout Muslims do not drink or eat from dawn until sunset and, according to the document, must avoid ‘all obscene and irreligious sights and sounds’.

The Islamic Network is one of a number of staff faith and equality groups within the Home Office and paid for by the taxpayer.

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Telegraph: A Christian nurse will meet hospital bosses tomorrow to find out whether she will be forced out of her job for insisting on wearing a cross while on duty.

Shirley Chaplin has been taken off the wards at The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust Hospital after refusing to remove her necklace.

As first disclosed in The Sunday Telegraph, the 54-year-old grandmother has been told she cannot wear the one inch silver symbol openly because it breaches uniform policy and could prove a risk to patients.

She has been warned she could be suspended if she does not co-operate or accept accept an administrative role at the hospital, prompting fears that she could be dismissed after nearly 30 years.

The trust insisted its policy was not about the symbol of the crucifix, but motivated by health and safety concerns about patients grabbing necklaces.

But Mrs Chaplin, who is eight months from retirement, is taking them to an employment tribunal claiming she has been targeted because of her faith.

“Everyone I have ever worked with has clearly known I am a Christian: it is what motivates me to care for others,” she said.

“For about 30 years I have worked in the NHS and nursed patients day and night and on no occasion has my cross caused me or anyone else, any injury – and to my knowledge, no patient has ever complained about me wearing it.

“I feel that I’m being bullied and victimised because of my faith.”

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