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September 7th, 2006

Basildon Islamic Centre burnt down

I hope you don’t mind me making a serious post every now and then. This one is about some local news here in Essex.

At the weekend the Basildon Islamic Centre was gutted by fire. It was almost certainly an arson attack.

I have two questions:

1) What drives someone to do such a thing?

2) Why wasn’t this news anywhere except the local Basildon newspaper? Not even BBC Essex seems to have picked up on it. Doing a search on Google news one finds that sources such as ITV picked up on the ‘Sunshine delays train by 7 minutes‘ story, but no one covered this horrible racist attack half a mile up the road.

Anyway, well done to our local bishop, Bishop Laurie, who is making moves to bring people of different beliefs together.

An additional point. The person they have charged is 15 years old. This comes at a time when Religious Education is being downgraded in Essex schools as it doesn’t contribute to the school league tables.

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10 Responses to “Basildon Islamic Centre burnt down”


  1. Larry Day says:

    Excellent to have you highlight this Dave. You make many valid and important points.

    I guess the answer to your first question is fear and acquired prejudice. Along with a desire to be heroic, bonding to a group with similar prejudices and simply boredom.

    Media bias anywhere and everywhere in the world is endemic and central to the way they court an audience. Ratings and circulation are worshipped.

    Sounds like you have an excellent bishop. That is very good news for you.

    As for league tables and the decline of RE, well, there you go…you try and convince folk that they have limited meaning :-)

    September 7th, 2006 at 10:58 am
  2. Jojo says:

    Well done it is good to highlight the bad and the good.
    I think it is very sad that at a time when all should be taught religious tolerance that one way young people will get a better understanding of others beliefs is being cut down on.
    Happily in my area simlar interfaith support is being shown, as the clergy of High Wycombe are showing support to the communities caught up in the airoplane arrest etc.
    I hope there will be more of this at all levels

    September 7th, 2006 at 11:17 am
  3. Dave says:

    I should probably clarify my comment about RE in schools. I know of a school where the number of pupils doing RE at GCSE has dropped significantly as it has been made optional. This is against the law of course, but there are ways around the law. RE has been made optional so that the pupils can do extra maths and english lessons as an alternative, maths and english being important for the league table results. I am suspecting that this school is not alone in doing such things without anyone really noticing.

    September 7th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
  4. Richard says:

    Making RE optional has been going on for years. When I did my GCSE’s twenty years ago it was timetabled as an option alongside PE.

    With regards to the arson attack, we’ve had something similar around here – the mosque in Basingstoke was attacked shortly after the latest airline security alerts were hit. There is also a big debate going on in Reading over the fact that Reading Council withdrew permission for an Islamic Festival to be held in Prospect Park last weekend over security concerns. Both of those stories made our regional news programmes (mosque attack and islamic fair) in the South.

    September 7th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
  5. ash says:

    My school never had RE as a compulsory GCSE subject. I chose to take it, as did a sizable number of people, however.

    The school with which our sixth-form was partnered did have compulsory RE, however, it was only a ‘short course’ and this meant that people couldn’t pick it as a proper subject. consequently, their A-level students were starting off with a lot less knowledge than we were.

    I don’t think RE should be compulsory at GCSE- I don’t think any subjects should (including the big boys of science and maths). But I think RE education from years 7-9 should be drastically improved. Mine was utterly appauling.

    September 7th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
  6. ash says:

    On the subject in hand, I am very distressed to learn that this has not made the main stream media. I am also very glad to hear that the Bishop and the local Christian community are standing alongside their Islamic brothers and sisters in solidarity.

    September 7th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
  7. Bimble says:

    In our school RE (at GCSE level) was given as a choice of RE, PE or neither.

    I know htta this might seem like a silly question (especially as no-one will probably be able to answer it) but did anyone actually tell the media about the attack on the Islamic Center?? I can remember the BBCi reporting that our university had been put up on eBay, but only because they were told about it. In the case of the train delayed by sunshine, someone probably complained to a friend, or someone from ITV was on the train.

    Of course, several years ago there was a major train crash in Canada due to sunlight shining on some lights, making them appear green when they were red…. better safe than sorry!!

    September 7th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
  8. Nigel says:

    Hi, Dave. Why can’t we all just get on? It sadens me so see your post about the Basildon Islamic Centre. I work in Leeds, at a large office, and there are people from every creed and colour there. We work together, we laugh together, and last year just after the terrible things that happened in London on July 7th, I saw one of my Muslim colleagues praying for the victims and then breaking down crying. We are actually situated in Beeston, which is just out of Leeds centre, and in those initial police investigations the tension was high, to say the least. I suppose there was mistrust at first, as anyone could be a terrorist, but things soon got back to normal.

    I think that if we humans could just try to look at each other from a different point of view, and see that, yes, we are of countless faiths and beliefs, but deep inside we’re all just the same. Same fears, same worries, same hopes. May the power that made us, please help us to see we are all just the same inside, and we should love each other.

    God bless.

    September 9th, 2006 at 11:14 am
  9. Richard (not the same Richard) says:

    i found this post very interesting and the responses it has garnered equally so. i would like to equally applaud the Bishop for his wisdom in this situation, but i think that as Christians we need to be looking much further ahead. Nigel asked a question that is far deeper than i suspect that we can answer here, ‘Why can’t we just get along?’.

    the answer he gave is one that i can understand, but unfortunately is not one that i can agree with here. the fact of the matter is that Christianity and Islam are two incompatable faiths, it is inherent in their very nature to create a world that is wholey representative of their faith and no other (which i suppose is just a long winded way of saying they aim to evangelise everyone). i know that in all honesty i could not say i would rather see a man die a Muslim than a Christian and i would hope that Muslims would hold the opposite view.

    September 12th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
  10. Paul says:

    I covered the story here.

    The motive for the destruction of the Islamic Centre remains a mystery.

    September 16th, 2006 at 5:49 am