Mega Mosque: Time for the real lying to begin

As the number of signatories to the petition supporting that wonderful new construction, the "mega mosque", surges towards 240 (leaving the wicked bigots of the anti-mosque petition trailing, with a mere 47,762 signatures), its builders, the Tablighi Jamaat extremist group (which is believed to have links to al-Qaeda, among other questionable organisations) have, despite the primitive barbarity of their beliefs, taken the rather modern step of hiring a PR firm to lie for them/spread the truth about this misunderstood group of peace-loving philanthropists (delete as applicable):

To improve its image Tablighi Jamaat has hired Indigo Public Affairs, a company that specialises in major planning battles. Indigo lobbies councillors and other planning authorities, organises community consultation exercises and liaises with the media.

Indigo Public Affairs' brief rather reminds me of an episode in the TV comedy show Absolute Power, in which a pair of PR men were asked to "spin Hitler". "Spin Bin Laden" (or maybe just "spin Bin") can't be that different.

Indigo has put Tablighi Jamaat on YouTube with a short statement from an unnamed representative who tries to calm fears about the size of the mosque and says that it will reach its 12,000 capacity only once or twice a year.

The largest Anglican cathedral in Britain has a capacity of 3,000. This mosque will be getting more than that each week, even if it is only full to capacity occasionally. What better symbol of the Islamification of the UK?

Anyway, 4,000 or 5,000 is still quite a lot of Muslims for an area to cope with each week. I have a friend who lives in an area near a mosque with a couple of hundred worshippers, and they cause quite enough of a disturbance each Friday.

The lobbyists have also created a mosque website which claims that the Tablighi Jamaat movement “stands for democracy and freedom” and is “a role model to promote social and religious integration”.

Yes. And they cuddle fluffy little kittens, make daisy chains, and sing to the birds. We get the picture. They sound like a great bunch of guys.

Such a shame none of it's actually true.