Protest against Blackburn ‘terrace house mosque’

COUNCILLORS are set to tell a mosque in Blackburn to move out of a terrace house after objections from neighbours. The town’s MP Jack Straw has backed objectors to an application for retrospective planning consent for the place of worship above the Ashrafi Study Centre Madrassah, in Accrington Road, Audley.

He has told Blackburn with Darwen planning committee that using terraced houses as mosques was no longer necessary, or appropriate, to allow Muslims to practise their faith.

Farooq Mohammed has been operating an Islamic school at the premises with planning permission since July 2009 for 75 pupils, between 5pm and 7.30pm.
In August last year he submitted a retrospective application to use the whole building as a mosque, which was withdrawn in January because of noise and highway safety concerns. (continue reading...)