Muslims shun project funded by lottery

An unfinished community centre for use by Muslims has become a rat-infested eyesore, shunned by the people it was intended to serve because it was funded by a Muslim lottery winner.
The skeletal framework of the community centre in the Bastwell area of Blackburn, Lancashire, has been rotting and abandoned for eight years after a £300,000 donation from Britain’s first lottery millionaire.
Mukhtar Mohidin, from Blackburn, won £17.9 million in 1994. But his attempts to give something back to his community have proved fruitless, after a dispute broke out among local Muslims, who said that the centre had been built using "filthy money" because Islam does not allow gambling.
The community centre scheme was led by the nearby Masjid Al Momineen Mosque, which has been unable to raise the £400,000 pounds needed to finish the building because of opposition from Muslims in the area.
The Lancashire Council of Mosques said that the mosque was unable to obtain donations because gambling is prohibited by the Koran.
Andy Kay, a local councillor in charge of regenerating the borough, said that the centre was likely to stay in its current state until someone bought the building for another purpose.
An Islamic study centre had been given planning permission, but approval was later obtained for a community centre once the involvement of Mr Mohidin, who became known as Mr Millions, was announced. He paid for the steel work and foundations but the project ground to a halt after those sections were completed in late 1998.
A member of the mosque’s committee said that it was applying for European funding and hoped that work could restart early next year.
He said: "There have been a lot of delays but we are trying to get the money. We have never been out to anyone from the Muslim community to ask for money. It would be a community centre for everyone, not just Muslims."
But Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said that when money was needed for projects, mosques across the country would be approached.
He said: "Because they accepted lottery money, they have been classed as outcasts, so now no mosque will work with them.
"They are unable to get the money from Muslim communities, which is why it is at a standstill. They are not going to be able to get any money. That is their dilemma."
Mr Mulla said that he was responsible for coordinating collections at the mosque which he attends, and that he would not have allowed money to be collected for this scheme.
He said: "As Muslims we are not allowed to accept money from gambling. Clean money is what people have worked for, not got from gambling, betting or the lottery.
"The management committee at that time decided to take the money but the consequences were that everybody in the UK got to find out about it. Because they accepted the money it looked very, very bad throughout the UK and also in Muslim areas of the world."
Taj Ahmed, whose takeaway food outlet overlooks the site, said: "We have been having problems with rats. Because it used to be housing, there are drains underneath it."
He added: "It doesn’t make a good impression for customers coming here. At the end of the day, something needs doing about it."