‘Our bills have tripled’: UK’s first Turkish mosque fights to survive in London
Young people are slowly stopping attending Dalston mosque that could be forced to accept developers’ offers, says owner
Gosh.
The mosque was first built in 1903 and was initially used as a synagogue for the Jewish community. By the 1970s, the building was abandoned and taken over by Erkin’s father, Ramadan Güney, who turned it into the UK’s first Turkish mosque. “In those days, it was thriving, it was heaving with people and support. There were no financial issues back then,” said Güney.
Building changes use a couple of times a century. Ho Hum.
Güney said: “I’m not here for money, if I was, I would have sold the building and gone. It’s a mosque, it shouldn’t be up for sale, it shouldn’t be interfered with. It’s a sacred place.”
But you bought it Matey.
Dalston
Right religion wrong ethnicity
Since the State Religion of the UK is the Church of England, perhaps he should gift it to them??
Yeah, Muslims, but this is really about Net Zero again, innit?
He recently received an electricity bill for £17,000.
Net Zero is low-key destroying all economic and social activity across the country, and – amazingly – the bills have barely started arriving.
That £17K leccy bill is going to look like a bargain once the “decarbonisation” hits top gear.
What do?
Where’s the article in the Guardian about my local church facing imminent closure after 120 years, then?
Open a barber shop?
Sam – is your local church empty?
We used to attend a local church, run by a lovely man in a cardigan who wouldn’t shut the fuck up about the environment and other woke causes.
It was empty, apart from a couple of elderly people you always worried might die in the pews.
We now attend another local church run by actual God botherers who talk about the Gospel every week and are decidedly…. not… woke.
It’s full. Plenty of happy white children (mine included) running about the place, too.
JC is with the people who gather in His name, not so much the social workers in dog collars.
I need to find a scanning electron microscope to locate my tiny violin.
Area’s changing. Was Jewish. Catchment area for Spurs supporters. Then the Jews moved out to Finchley & the Turks moved in. Now Turks are going up in the world & also up the A10 to Enfield. Last time I was round that way, seemed to be a lot Africans. West by the look of them. Good place if you want to buy okra. Black Hats & the Bobover are still in Stamford Hill though. You won’t shift them easily.
Brilliant by Julia
Steve: It’s not packed, I’ll give you that. But it was UF*, so the congregation owns the building. Nobody seems to be prepared to stand up and say, “Hold on… could we make this work?”, least of all the Kirk authorities themselves.
*United Free Church. Most of which rejoined the established Kirk in the early 20th Century. Part of the reunion settlement was that UF congregations were permitted to keep the Free Kirk constitution. At least, I think that’s it. Scottish church history is Complicated.
‘That £17K leccy bill is going to look like a bargain once the “decarbonisation” hits top gear.
What do?’
Burn the Greens? But I’ve said all this before.
My violin is so small I can’t locate it due to the uncertainty principle.
I’m he could fill it up if he brought in a few guest hate preachers.
If a Turkish Mosque is like a Turkish barbers, then the imam will be lounging around with wailing music on his phone while his mates make all the money elsewhere.
Steve
The Church sounds like fun – I am interested to know do you think (no pun intended) that ‘Net Zerro’ is sustainable.
Will the powers that be be able to push ahead with it even though as you rightly point it it collides with reality on an almost daily basis. How long do you think the charade could be maintained.
I sometimes feel that I compliment you on almost every post but that doesn’t mean it isn’t warranted – spot on as ever
“the State Religion of the UK is the Church of England”: oh balls.
The CoE is the established religion in England, the CoS in Scotland. Neither Wales nor NornIron has an established church.
You may remember that about the first public statement that the new King Charles had to make was to confirm that he’d signed up to preserving the Kirk.
Isn’t the CofE establshed in England and Wales ? That Archbishop who looked like Gandalf, he was Welsh.
We couldn’t afford to keep our huge Meeting House after 285 years, wailey wailey! So we sold it, it’s now a nice restaurant, so what? Invested in the smaller one in the next town, and we rented rooms in a community centre. Recently we couldn’t afford the rent, wailey, wailey! so we handed in the lease and rent one room in a sports hall. So what? Whereverso my people gather yea shall be a church. Baulleaux to the building and its patriarchial hierarchical imputations, nae priests, nae bishops, NAE HIERARCHY!
sorry, will wipe the froth off. 🙂
Ottokring:
“Isn’t the CofE establshed in England and Wales ? That Archbishop who looked like Gandalf, he was Welsh.”
Not since 1920. It’s Anglican, but not Cof E.
That Archbishop who looked like David Lammy, he was Ugandan.
If you can’t get the people to the Mosque, move the Mosque to the people. If neither work get out of the religion business. Become a real social club like the CofE.
“Not since 1920. It’s Anglican, but not Cof E.”
Ah thanks. I thought it was like the cricket.
Convert it into a dogs home or a piggery.
A piggery in Dalston? I’d pay good money … 🙂
Place nearby fought off some carpetbaggers 10years ago who were attracted by a nice building to flog off. They could have got away with it if they were clever. But once the word went around there was some financial difficulties about 40 more than usual turned up at the AGM. Most lived nearby but turned out out they hadn’t been members or paid subs for years. Black balled until the constitution changed and various trusts set up.
Anyway leccie/gas bill is a bit of a challenge once again , but only regulars turned up at this years AGM. The chair read out a 1926 AGM minutes, which said they were down to 12 members and considering closing down. Plus ca change?. (Pretty sure changing from temperance place to licenced premises was wot done the trick)
@Mark – “My violin is so small I can’t locate it due to the uncertainty principle.”
That’s ok. Religion tells you to renounce violins and give peas a chance. So have a look to see if you have any promising looking pods.
Believe it’s the Church in Wales for the Welsh version of CoE
The archbishop you are likely thinking of is Rowan Williams, I recall he was a minister at Newport (the Welsh one) as he was taking over from the vicar that married my wife and I.
When visiting back in the UK recently was told 2 or 3 local churches are going to be shut down, same week the CoE was talking about upping slavery reparations to a billion
I have some friends whose CoE church has had no priest for about three years, and the lay managers (I’m not sure what they are called) have been advertising for a replacement. I’ve seen the job posting. Completely contrary to what the congregation wants, they’re advertising for an evangelical happy clappy chappy. The management are puzzled why a rural church in the middle of nowhere with average age of 75 has had no applications.
I’ve advised them they should target somebody older, kids all grown up, not wanting schools or “nightlife” stuff which are an hour’s bus ride away. The village has already had to merge five parishes, that’s how back woods it is. Promote it as something ideal as a final posting while running up to retirement. That sort of targetting got us a wonderful headteacher for our school in the run up to merging it with another one.
VP – thank you for saying so, unfortunately
Will the powers that be be able to push ahead with it even though as you rightly point it it collides with reality on an almost daily basis. How long do you think the charade could be maintained.
I can only guess. If normal democratic feedback mechanisms are restored, somehow, this could be very quickly. If not, also quickly for other endogenous (budgetary crises and farmers rebellions) or exogenous (Chinese and Russian) reasons. Or maybe they’ll insist we all get mandatory sex changes and live in eco-huts, and the Conservatives will campaign for the Traditional British Mosque. Idk, the Western world seems to be governed by dim middle managers in the service of a batshit insane billionaire class. No telling what they’ll do. Remember they convinced the entire population to wear face knickers and get Mystery Jabs?
There’s certainly no reason why we should be poor. The United Kingdom sits on a bounty of coal, oil, and gas. We built some of the first atomic power plants in the world, back in the 1950’s. It took a lot of government planning to make Britain an energy poorhouse.
But, with the institutional will to do so, we could ditch Net Zero and make energy prices drop tremendously within 5-10 years. Poverty is a choice. We chose to get rich with Maggie, if we can get our votes to count again we can make the same choice again.
Sam Duncan – Aye, Scottish Church history makes the plot of Dune seem straightforward.
Jgh – Whereverso my people gather yea shall be a church.
You’re right, the Church is not a building.
I’ve just remembered the Kenneth Williams story that is vaguely related to this thread.
He was in the army with Stanley Baxter and they were in Hong Kong. The colonel needed pallbearers for a military funeral and had their platoon lined up.
Baxter was about 6′ and the colonel said
“You’ll do.”
“Ah, couldnae sir. Church of Scotland y’see ?”
“Ah yes of course, quite right…” The colonel moves on a few squaddies, stops and runs back.
“Wait a minute, your lot bury people too ! Get fell in !”
Steve,
“But, with the institutional will to do so, we could ditch Net Zero and make energy prices drop tremendously within 5-10 years. Poverty is a choice. We chose to get rich with Maggie, if we can get our votes to count again we can make the same choice again.”
It’s not institutional, it’s about the voters. I’m not saying they’re perfect but Reform are basically the path to a richer future. They’re polling something like 12% (although I think this will be higher in some places, lower in others).
A lot of people still buy that we can have all these wasteful luxuries AND all the services. I think we’ve still got to sink further before people get it.
Blasphemer!
Stone him!
He is putting a private matter at a higher priority than our beloved Gaia, who can only be saved by ever-higher energy bills!
He should be praising Allah for showing him so plainly that the mosque is wasting energy
The more of this cheap green electricity they add in the higher my bills are.