17th June 2024
Hamptons Cause Disturbance With Eid Prayers
The events of yesterday’s Eid prayers at the Hamptons Mosque cannot be allowed to pass with comment from us.
It’s a stark contrast to the worshippers that use the Parkway Mosque, quietly and with consideration to their neighbours, and to them we say Eid Mubarek.
The usual Hamptons Shamble
So having cancelled the outdoor prayers on Thursday morning, you’d think that the information about parking and travel for the Hamptons Mosque, would be displayed promptly on the Chelmsford Muslim Society FB page, website and apps. Nothing ever went up.
The first session at 8am was poorly attended, but we knew that the second session would be packed.
THE Deliberately provocative use of the call to prayer
CMS have always claimed vociferously that they will never broadcast the call to prayer outside the Hamptons Mosque, but that wasn’t the case yesterday. The call to prayer was belted out at 8am and 10am with gusto.
Minutes from an meeting in 2020, attended by Cllr Young, CMS and the estate management team. AS= Ayman Syed, Chairman of CMS.
A PA system was placed inside this plant room facing the residential properties, just 20 feet away. It was so loud, you could hear it half the way down Tydemans, and virtually the length of Monfort Drive.
If the speakers were to broadcast the call to prayer inside the building, why were the speakers inside a plant room with louvered doors, facing the residential properties.
And why was this even necessary ? This isn’t a third world country where people are too poor to have mobile phones with clocks on them. And there are dozens of apps that remind worshippers of prayer times.
And we’ll mention the Parkway Mosque again, who have existed for in harmony with the local community since the 1970’s, who don’t blast out the call to prayer. Why is it just Hamptons ?
And here’s the explanation from Hamptons
So we are to believe that a pa speaker was inadvertently placed in a locked plant room, which just happened to be facing the residential properties.
It then magically connected itself and and turned itself on, and blasted out the call to prayer at exactly 8am and 10am,
And none of the 800 worshippers, marshals or Hamptons staff noticed the sound ?
AND THe parking was no better
You can see from the video, that residents again had to challenge anti-social and dangerous parking by worshippers. Many of the local roads are so narrow, that if cars park opposite each other, it’s too narrow for emergency services to pass.
Many of the pavements were completely blocked by worshippers cars, anyone with a pram or buggy, wasn’t getting past. Now this is illegal, but our local plod were clearly too busy practising their dance routine for the Essex Pride march next weekend
It is an offence to drive on to a pavement, contrary to s.72 of the Highway Act 1835 and s.34 of the Road Traffic Act 1988).
It is an offence to leave a vehicle on a road (including the pavement) in a dangerous position, contrary to s.22 of the Road Traffic Act 1988.
It is an offence to obstruct a pavement, contrary to Regulation 103 of The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986.
Rule 145 of the Highway Code states You must not drive on or over a pavement, footpath or bridleway except to gain lawful access to property, or in the case of an emergency.
And once again, we had mosque marshals on the Kings Highway, obstructing the flow of traffic, and dozens of cars parked round the grass verge by the tennis courts, despite being told not to by the council.
And why wasn’t the overflow parking booked at Baddow High School ? Here’s the shocking truth: