Dudley Muslim Association (DMA) can once again take its case to the Court of Appeal after a decision by one of the country’s most senior judges.
Dudley Council launched a legal bid to reclaim land, in Hall Street, which had been earmarked for the site of a new multi-million pound mosque. The DMA had lost its initial appeal after its defence against the move was struck out at a hearing earlier this year at London’s High Court. But now the association has been granted the chance to mount a second appeal after Judge Sir Stephen Sedley ruled there is an ‘arguable’ case that Dudley Council may have committed an ‘abuse of power’ over its dealings with the association.
The case will be heard by a panel of three judges at the Court of Appeal in London at a date to be confirmed later this year. If the appeal is successful, the matter will then go to trial.
In a ruling in February, High Court Deputy Judge David Halpern QC upheld the decision to throw out plans for the new mosque. He said while the association may have been able to resist the council’s claim, it had failed to serve a ‘credible’ defence during the proceedings. But at court last week, Sir Stephen Sedley disagreed, finding the association had successfully pleaded in its defence that there was a so-called ‘legitimate expectation’ that the council would extend a deadline for the development.
Speaking in court last week, Sir Stephen Sedley said: “The association missed the deadline for completion of the mosque because the MBC [Dudley Council], which had set the deadline, had in practice made it untenable by a succession of steps it took in relation to planning consent.”
A Scots extremist is the man behind the sickening invasion of mosques across the country. Jim Dowson, former second-in-command of the neo-Nazi British National Party, now heads the Britain First Defence Force.
Sveinbjörg Birna Sveinbjörnsdóttir, first on the Progressive Party’s list in Reykjavík for Saturday’s municipal elections, voiced her opposition to the proposed mosque in Reykjavík on Friday. Reykjavík City Council has already allocated a lot for the mosque and construction is set to begin this year.
The principal of a Christian College has come under fire for transferring two student teachers after they turned up for work dressed in traditional Muslim headwear.
Controversial Lutfur Rahman last night triumphed over Labour in a knife-edge mayoral election in Tower Hamlets.