More to Finsbury Park than Radical Islam

By LiseS

Thursday, January 21, 2010, 22:35

Reports that the former imam of the North London Mosque on St Thomas' Road, Abu Hamza, is appealing his extradition from the UK have again brought the name of Finsbury Park into the news in an unwelcome light. On this occasion, at least, the mosque and its former cleric are the direct subject of the news stories - more often, Finsbury Park seems to be used as a casual byword for all sorts of nefarious activities, despite the fact that Hamza has not preached at the mosque since his arrest in 2004.

I do, it's true.

 

With terrorism and radical Islam still high on the news agenda, scarcely a day seems to go by without a mention of Finsbury Park in connection with the hot-button issue of the day - tube train attacks, aeroplane bombings, the ban on minarets in Switzerland and this rather bizarre piece by Richard Littlejohn in which the columnist somehow manages to draw the North London mosque into a discussion of the cases of Amanda Knox and Gary McKinnon. But why should the mosque and its surroundings be constantly referred to in this kind of context?

No doubt laziness plays its part - why search for a new buzzword when the name of Finsbury Park conjures up an image of radical fundamentalism so very easily in the popular imagination? But I'm sure residents will all readily agree, this sloppy and misleading association of the area with a disgraced, jailed, soon-to-be extradited former preacher at the mosque bears no relation to the peaceful and culturally inclusive Finsbury Park in which we all live and work today.

It's time to reclaim the name of Finsbury Park from the media scaremongers and lazy researchers - who's with me?

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