The Not So Open Day
After waiting over four years for an Open Day at Hamptons Sports & Leisure, anyone who took the time to visit on Saturday, would’ve have been disappointed.
Things are so bad that Hamptons had to combine two events, in an attempt to fill the venue, and even then, only the Muslim community really turned out to support them.
Hardly welcoming
We’d seen posts on local social media pages inviting everyone to “meet the team”. The “team” turned out to be unenthusiastic volunteers, who had been briefed on what to say during the guided tours. It all seemed a bit plastic, much like the sheeting that had been placed over mosque carpet.
Display banners courtesy of the Islamic Education & Research Academy
At least the “goodie bag” looking promising, but alas it turned out to be just a copy of the Quran in English, a cheap Hamptons pen, and a leaflet titled “Mosque Open Day, FAQS: Misconceptions About Islam And Muslims.
Silly us for thinking that this was an open day promoting the sports and leisure club.
We saw no one from the Tennis and Squash Sections, or the Short Mat Bowls, and the tour guides certainly didn’t mention any of the sports section in detail, nor did they promote the venues leisure uses, not that there’s much to promote
One thing that was odd, was that there was nowhere to sit down, even if purchased food from the bazaar or the Hamptons Halal kitchen, you had to eat it standing up.
The only seating we found, was in the newly renamed “Bubu’s cafe”, which isn’t normally opened at weekends. The cafe was packed, for probably the first time since it opened.
The Bazaar
The Main Hall had about 20 stalls inside, mainly food vendors, selling Pakistani street food, Halal Chinese food and desserts, Other stalls sold dried flowers, jewellery, clothing, There was even a stall offering massage, but for sisters only.
And front and centre were the horribly anti-Semitic volunteers from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Chelmsford.
It’s something we feel strongly about, there’s no place for politics in a community centre, but this clearly aligns which Hamptons ethos, vision and values.
PSC Chelmsford held a screening of the anti- Israeli documentary “Israelism”, later on that same day, although it would appear they had issues selling tickets, as they were still plugging it heavily in their WhatsApp groups, just hours before it started.
A True Indication Of the Venue’s Identity
There’s no doubt that Hamptons is now principally a mosque, and nothing we saw on Saturday showed anything to the contrary, what we attended was a Mosque Open Day.
There was no attempt to promote any of the sports and leisure uses, something that won’t help Hamptons dire financial situation.
At a recent staff meeting, the few remaining staff expressed their concerns, relating to the closure of the bars, the loss of the wedding and function side of the business, and the future plans for the venue. And they’d be right.
Given the recent visit of extremist cleric Haitham Al Haddad, we have genuine concerns about what’s now happening behind closed doors at the mosque and madrassa. Promoting the pro Palestine cause has no place at a community centre,
We’ll finish with a quote from the leaflet in the “goodie bag”:
“Muslims have a deep sense of social responsibility, respect for the rule of law, individual liberty and tolerance for those of different faiths”