Swale, August 20: Plans for a Muslim Community Centre containing a prayer room have been given the green light, Yourswale reports.
Swale councillors approved the proposals for a new meeting place in Sittingbourne for members of the Islamic faith at a planning meeting on Thursday.
The move will see five sets of prayers a day taking place alongside Arabic lessons and religious workshops on the site of the former Prince Alfred pub.
Members of Swale’s Muslim community applied for the centre to be given the go-ahead after being told they would lose a building used previously.
There has been an Islamic centre in the town’s West Street for 12 years, but the landlord told members they must leave the building in the next few months.
Rather than move the religious hub out of town, organisers decided to apply to turn the old pub, in Hawthorn Road, into a new centre, adding an extension on to the back and turning the ground floor into a prayer hall.
Keith Plumb, of Woodstock Associates, said on behalf of the applicants when the decision to apply to move was made: “Sittingbourne and the neighbouring towns and villages have a sizeable Muslim community.
“For the last 12 years the Islamic Community Centre has been at West Street, Sittingbourne. The Community Centre serves as a place where people of different origins and across the generations can meet in one place, enabling an exchange and an enrichment of thoughts.
“The place will also be used to teach Arabic, as well as social skills, to children.”
Mr Plumb went on to say that the centre would be used five times a day for prayers, extra prayers on a Friday, two annual celebrations at the beginning and end of Ramadan and weekend classes in Arabic.
Some residents had expressed concerns over noise – particularly the call to prayer – and disruption, as well as parking facilities.
But others welcomed the move and said they saw no difference to any other application by a faith or religious group.
Mr Plumb said prayers would be short and would not regularly attract big crowds.
“The five daily prayers generally last from five minutes to ten minutes per prayer and the centre is generally vacated by most attendees within 15 minutes,” he said.
“The general attendances to these prayers tend to be small, five to ten people based on the current experience.
“The attendance to the special Friday prayer tends to be the main attraction for the community with attendance reaching numbers of about 100.
“The gathering is very peaceful and lasts up to an hour in total, in the early afternoon.”
He added: “The management committee feels that it will be an improvement changing the use from a pub to a place for social gathering and worship.
“There will be absolutely no chance of anti-social behaviour caused by alcohol consumption or abuse.”
-Agencies