MOSQUE FOR LONDON

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 39, 17 May 1935, Page 8

MOSQUE FOR LONDON

SHEIK-PINK MARBLE

(From the Guardian's Special Corres-

pondent—By Air Mail)

LONDON, April 27,

The glittering domes and shining minarets of a- magnificent mosque built from shell-pink marble may soon be towering over the roof-tops in the heart of the West End. Costing £150,000, it is to be designed by a Moslem architect, and Eastern craftsmen are to be brought from India to endow it with all the barbaric splendour of the Orient. British Moslems are anxious to celebrate Jubilee year by pushing ahead with this scheme. The richest man in the world, the Nizam of Hyderabad, who also celebrates his jubilee this year, has already made a donation of £60,000 towards the building fund, and the mosque, when completed, will be named the Nizamiah Mosque in his honour. Land in the West End fetches a fabulous price per square foot, but the Moslems are hoping to get a site free v of charge. "In Paris, where there is a far smaller Moslem community, the Government donated a site for the mosque, and we are hoping that the British Government may follow that example," said one of their spokesmen thjis week. "Our plans provide not only for a mosque but for a students' hostel and centre for Moslem culture." Lord Headley and the Aga Khan are among the trustees of the Mosque Fund.