Burned Wichita Mosque to be Rebuilt

Churches and locals helping Muslims to rebuild their burned down mosque in Wichita, Kansas:

Burned Wichita mosque to be rebuilt

(WICHITA, Kan.) — A Wichita mosque near Taft and Knight that burned down in November will soon be in service again.

“Everybody knew that they wanted to rebuild and that we do need a center on the west side for the people that use it. How that was going to get done, there were some logistics that needed to be worked out,” explains Donna Sibaai, Islamic Association member.

Investigators have never determined a cause in last fall’s fire, but gave the mosque persmission to start rebuilding last month. On Monday, supplies for the building’s roof were delivered.

Sibaai adds, “It’s like the first piece of the puzzle, so it’s going to be a great day for our community.”

Sibaai says the fire was devastating, but an outpouring of support from the community and other churches made things easier.

“Many of us got personal emails, people just wanting to know what they could do to help, offering their spaces even for worship. We had several churches offer space for worship for our Friday prayers, it was amazing.”

A crane will be brought in a Wednesday to put the roof on the building. The mosque sustained about $130,000 in damages.

Another Mosque Torched in West Bank: Hebrew Word for “War” Painted on Wall

More price-tag operations.

Another mosque torched in West Bank

Vandals set fire to another mosque in the West Bank on Thursday and defaced it with Hebrew graffiti.

The governor of Ramallah, Laila Ghanam, said arsonists doused the mosque in the village of Burqa with gasoline, then set it afire. The Hebrew words for “war” and “Mitzpe Yitzhar” were painted in red on a wall, and the Israeli military said carpets and chairs were burned.

Mitzpe Yitzhar is an unauthorized Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank where Israeli security forces demolished two structures early Thursday.

In recent years, settlers have attacked Palestinian and Israeli military targets in retaliation for Israeli government operations they see as overly sympathetic to Palestinians. The increasing frequency of the attacks, the sparse number of arrests and paucity of indictments have generated allegations that the Israeli government isn’t acting forcefully enough against extremists after two years of violence.

On Wednesday, following an assault on an Israeli military base, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved measures to clamp down on extremists, including giving soldiers the authority to make arrests and to ban extremists from contentious areas.

Associated Press, 15 December 2011

UK: Planned Muslim Community Center Burned to the Ground by Arsonists

Is this a case of if you want to pray there we will burn it down?

Video & gallery: Huge fire at St Michael’s Church in Ipswich ‘suspicious’

FIRE investigators are “99 per cent sure” that a blaze which ripped through a church in Ipswich was started deliberately.

The fire at St Michael’s Church in Upper Orwell Street has left the Victorian building structurally unsafe.

An inspection of the remains of the vacant church by experts has revealed the roof is too unstable for fire investigators to enter the building.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk police said at this stage it is thought the fire started in the rear of the church shortly after 10pm on Monday.

She said: “The roof is very unstable and so it is too dangerous to enter the building at this stage.

“It looks like the fire was started at the rear of the church and spread straight to the roof.”

Today the owner of the dilapidated Victorian church said the community’s “dream is over”, after 25 years of savings and fundraising “went up in flames”, revealing his has no insurance.

Muhammad Manwar Ali, chief executive of Jimas, the organisation that owns the building, was at the forefront of plans to transform the church into a £1million Muslim-run community centre.

Dismayed, Mr Ali returned to the scene this morning as fire investigators and a building inspector assessed the extent of the damage.

The roof is completely destroyed and parts of the church were still burning, according to firefighters.

Tragically, the site was not insured and owner Mr Manwar Ali is set to lose the £350,000 he paid for the church last year out of his own life savings, fundraising and loans from friends.

And plans to spend up to £1 million over the next few years on transforming the run-down site have been shelved as the building teeters on the brink of collapse.

But incredibly, Mr Manwar Ali said that even if the police did manage to track down those responsible, he would rather invite them round for a cup of coffee than see them go to prison.

He said: “The foolish things is we hadn’t insured it. Hopefully there is nobody who has been harmed or hurt – there could have been somebody inside.

“I will forgive them (those responsible) and let them know I don’t want to see them in prison.

“They can come and have free coffee in our shop.”

He stressed that the church would have become a community centre, not a mosque, and that it would have been open to everyone in Ipswich.

He said: “We were not doing it for business or to make money for ourselves, even if people find that hard to believe.

“It wasn’t a Muslin or Asian thing – it would have been a fantastic place for Ipswich.”

If you were in the area and saw or heard anything suspicious, or if you have information about how the fire started please call Ds Michael Brown at Ipswich CID on 01473 613500.

Cradley Heath Mosque Burned to the Ground by Arsonists

Cradley Heath Mosque Burned to the Ground

A Mosque was torched and burned to the ground in Cradley Heath. (via Islamophobia Watch)

Cradley Heath Mosque Burned to the Ground by Arsonists

CRADLEY Heath’s Muslim community is appealing for help after its mosque was burnt to the ground by arsonists.

A fire engulfed the Cradley Heath Mosque and Islamic Centre in Plant Street on Boxing Day destroying the building and the religious countless books inside.

It is the second time in five years that the building has been targeted by arsonists and police are hunting the culprits.

The West Midlands Fire Service first reported that the blaze on Plant Street had destroyed ‘industrial units’ in Plant Street but when the smoke cleared it became obvious the building was a mosque.

The mosque was a thriving part of the community with 400 worshippers using it and classes of children being taught there.

The worshippers are now trying to find a new place to worship as the new Mosque they have being building alongside the old one will not be ready for use for several years.

Basharat Ali, secretary of the mosque and education centre, said: “This is not the first time we have been targeted, there was a similar attack four or five years ago.

“The building has been completely destroyed and all the books we use with the children have been damaged by water.”

“He added: “The new building is under construction, it is a shell inside and it is due to open in a few years.”