Man Shot At Krystals Banqueting on Sunday!

The scene of two shootings in just over a year!

The Krystal Banqueting on the High Road, Ilford (Just opposite Ilford Recorder's Office)  was the scene of the second shooting incident in 14 months at the venue. The shooting occurred at around 4.40am on Sunday, while 400 party-goers where still revelling despite exceeding the venues permitted hours.  resulted in closure of the road while a

The police have for a long period had reservations about the licensing of this venue and have submitted a request for an review of the existing license, which allows the serving of alcohol until 3.30am.  Cllr Javaid is said to have backed calls for a review in the Ilford Recorder, but how on earth has this review not happened sooner?

The victim is said to be stable in hospital and investigating Detectives from Operation Trident have called for witnesses to come forward.

Violence seems to be increasing in frequency on our local streets especially with the use of weapons.  Clementswood Police have agreed to hold a public meeting at Clementswood Community Centre on the 15th March at 19:30.  I urge local residents to come and join us and to meet our local Sgt and police officers. In addition to this incident we will be discussing the process for an extended No Drinking Zone along Green Lane.

If you would like more details of our forthcoming meetings please call 020 8514 0861 or email: Wilson@aasecurity.co.uk

Is this Redbridge's biggest snowman?

Sure enjoyed making this with my neighbours and children.  My younger daughters contributed but had to go to bed before we completed.  Hannah was more stoic and stayed till the end!

A day to remember - let's hope no-one smashes it overnight, I really want the little ones to see it!

Miracle prevents fatalities at collapsed Ilford City Gates church construction site

 The potentially unstable crane deemed serious hazard!

 Fire engines and other rescue services on standby to save potential casualties.

 The mangled infrastructure illustrates the lucky escape.

 Rescue teams awaiting directions- limited information from thermal imaging delayed active response.

The residual infrastructure looks ready for another cave in.

It's a miracle that no-one was seriously hurt!

A five storey church infrastructure build collapsed at 16:30pm today, and miraculously killed no-one.  Around 20 construction workers were still on site and yet none of them suffered major injury.

Firemen and other rescue crew where unable to scour the site for any casualties due to the perceived danger of the site.  Around 30 fire, police and ambulance vehicles still waited along Clements Road, and Winston Way, seeking the go-ahead for a survey of the wrecked construct at around 7pm.

The reason for the collapse has not yet been established but this near miss posed a real threat to local people. Police and fire crew worked together in partnership setting up a safety cordon of around 500m diameter around the site, concerned that the large lifting crane could be unstable.

The building site belongs to City Gates Church a large charismatic Christian group, who intend to build a 5 storey complex, including a large 1000 seater auditorium to serve their larger than normal congregation.   Other rooms would include various meeting rooms and community projects.  The construction project was headed up by Ashe Construction.

Images from the scene of the collapse indicate how close, workers and the public, were to a potentialy fatal incident.

Thick steel girders have been twisted and bent out shape, the concrete floors have been deemed to dangerous for inspection- even obscuring any tangible thermal observation via helicopter.  Fortunately an Evening Standard reporter informed Wilson, that by 8pm it had been established that no serious harm had befallen anyone.  A passing women is said to have exhibited serious symptoms of shock.  Wilson Chowdhry said;

"Being a Christian I am compelled to believe that God had a hand in preventing any loss of life, simply because with the complete collapse of the structure, at a normal operational time, a more inimical catastrophe should have occurred."  


Read an update here:


http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/news/ilford_city_gates_building_collapse_19_year_old_s_lucky_escape_from_parked_car_1_1194324

New years resolution to promote peace almost terminated due to poor weather

 The Redbridge Carnival Mascots and other visitors joined the peace gathering at our peace monument

 Later in the evening a second trip to the monument allowed us to clean the plaques for images.

Hard rainfall that lasted for over 4 hours (from 14:30 -19:00) on New Years Day, almost cancelled our new year mission to bring peace to the borough.   Although many visitors could not make it on a later  minutes silence scheduled for 19:30 those who turned up heard words of hope provided by Father Ackroyd, from Vine United reform church - read out by Wilson Chowdhry.  A minutes silence for all victims of violent crime in the borough created a sombre very sobering atmosphere.  The silence was pierced by the dulcid tones of a bugler playing reveille at the completion of the memorial.  

Our painting competition for mosaic designs to is now open and we will be launching it through local papers, our local media and via local schools, groups and colleges.  

If you would like more information of the painting competition please do make contact.

Borough-wide Peace Art Competition!

Parents of Kashif Mahmood RIP and Wilson Chowdhry during construction of monument!

The EIBP has launched a boroughwide art competition that will see young peoples art designs incorporated into the Redbridge Peace Monument - installed to commemorate victims of knife crime and to highlight the futility of knife crime.

The competition  has been launched on BBC Asia Network, Premier Christian Radio, Sunrise Radio, Ilford Recorder and Yellow Advertiser. 

We will also provide a large trophy to every school participating,  that we hope will be used for internal annual art competitions on a similar theme. 

Judging the competition will be undertaken by Mayor of Ilford Cllr Cummins, Ann Oakes-Odger MBE (Knifecrimes.org), Parvin Mahmood (mother of slain teenager Kashif Mahmood) and Gray Drostle (monument Designer).

If you as an individual, group or school would like to participate please contact us for the rules and regulations and template for the design.

Further details and images of our monument can be found here:

(Click here)

(Click here)


Wilson Chowdhry said;

"The EIBP wanted to lead by example and promote peace in the borough by opening the year with a resolution to see through this challenge.  We hope that our art competition will inspire young people to think about the world around them and how to make it a better place."

Twit Councillor warns of social media pitfalls!

Your meant to tweet not twit!

Click image to enlarge.

Cllr Wes Streeting has openly supported new guidelines for Redbridge Councillors on the use of social media.  Yet he has a history of impudent rantings based on his identified problem with straight people?  His comments to the Ilford Recorder are juxtaposed to his flagrant malpractice, evidenced below within an extract taken from a blogger called Dizzy Thinks.  I like many of you believe Cllr Wes Streeting is an inappropriate champion for this new set of rules.  

Here is a hyperlink termed "Jilted lovers make websites for revenge".  I am not sure why I have inserted this here, but it seemed appropriate. :)

============================================

Below extract from Dizzy Thinks: 

This is a gay club for gay people...we'll have no straight ones here

at 6/26/2011 07:08:00 AM

Let's play a little game shall we. Imagine, if you will that you're a Tory councillor and you went out one night to a nightclub to see someone perform. Imagine to that you were standing in the queue waiting patiently to pass the bouncers and get through the door.

Whilst in the queue you noticed that they were quite a few gay couples queuing too, so, you get out your mobile phone, you fire up Twitter and you tell your 6000 or so followers that,

Resent the number of gay people in the nightclub queue. If you want to see [insert performers name] BUGGER OFF SOMEWHERE ELSE.

What do you think the screaming Left would be saying on Twitter? It wouldn't be long before you'd probably be "under pressure" from Leftie bloggers to quit. "Evidence!" they would scream of the vicious evil hatred of equality and sexuality differences.

OK, game over, now let's shoot back into reality just a few hours ago to see what a Labour councillor and former NUS President said last night.

Now..... personally I don't really have a problem with the comment in terms of its content and point.* What I do have a problem with is the inherent hypocrisy that exists within the comment given who is making it. You see, it illustrates wonderfully everything that is wrong with identity-based politics.

If you're going to go down the route of championing the rights and equal treatments of social groups, whether it be based on gender, who you have sex with, or skin colour, then you really ought to be consistent.

For example, if you're going to champion women and fight against sexism, then being sexist towards men isn't really going to put your argument on the moral high ground. Likewise, if you've been listed as one of the "50 most powerful gay people in British politics" it's probably not a good idea to start slagging off straight people.

I doubt of course that such hypocritical dickheadness will result in any newspapers article calling for this particular councillor (also tipped as a future Cabinet minister) to resign or apologise for being heterophobic - mainly because there is no such thing as heterophobia just as it not possible for a white person to experience racism.

* UPDATE: Just so it's clear here, I don't think Wes Streeting should be apologising for being "nasty" to straight people because I do actually understand his sentiment. The issue is (a) what would be his reaction if you reversed the words and a Tory councillor said them, and (b) the act of doublethink required on Wes Streeting's part to make such a comment in the first place.

Islamic New Year and the Importance of Muharram

Imam Hafiz Abdullah Muhammad and Reverend George Hargreaves speaking for peace, unity and restoration on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 at Redbridge Carnival.

Around 40 visitors attended Imam Hafiz Abdullah's presentation on the importance of Muharram in the Islamic calendar.

A spirit of unity amongst diverse people.

On the 6th December 2011 a gathering of around 40 people from a diverse mix of at least 4 faiths, attended an interfaith meeting with guest speaker Hafiz Abdullah Muhammad from Ilford based "Quran Study Group."

The British Pakistani Christian Association together with other faith groups, are holding a series of similar events, to create a better awareness of the variety of faiths represented in our locality.  Our goal is to dispel myths about "other faiths" and to create a better awareness of festivals and practices, that local people might share the goodwill that enshrines such festivities.

Hafiz Abdullah spoke of the "cultural enrichment" that communities open to other faiths benefit from and commended the work of the BPCA in organising the meetings.  Our funding was gained very much as a result of the progressive partnerships we have with groups such as Quran Study Group, the British Sikh Council and the Hindu Human Rights Group.  We are grateful to all these groups.

In his address on the Islamic Calendar, Hafiz Abdullah described how the English word ‘month’ comes from the word moon and the Islamic Calendar is based on the Lunar Calendar that many Ancient Civilisations as well such as the Babylonians, Jews, Greeks, Egyptians, Aztecs, Indians and Chinese. Each month is just over 29.5 days long, the period it takes for the moon to complete a full cycle of the Earth.   The Islamic calendar is therefore 10-11 days shorter than the Gregorian Calendar.  A result of this is the difficulty to coordinate holidays in the UK, as Eid and other dates move forward by a week and a half each year.  An advantage of the Lunar Calendar is that religious periods such as Ramadan and Hajj are subject to climatic variations with "different length of hours in submission to Allah where human imagination plays no part."

Hafiz Abdullah informed us that the Islamic Calendar was initiated by the second Caliph Umar in 16 AH/ 637 AD.  He said:

"The event of the Hijrah, the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) from Makkah to Madinah in 622 AD, was chosen to begin the Islamic Calendar."

Hafiz Abdullah explained when setting the calendar the Caliph and his advisors wanted to select an important event and it was believed that the Hijrah was the first major sacrifice made by the early Muslims for the preservation of Islam in its formative years.  He said;

"The Hijrah year reminds Muslims, every year, of the sacrifice made by the first Muslims and should prepare them to do the same."

Hafiz Abdullah described the period of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic Calendar and one of four sacred months.  He informed us that although not obligatory, it is recommended to fast during this period as there is Prophetic Tradition that states:

"The best fast, after Ramadan, is in the month of Muharram"

Hafiz Abdullah further explained that this fasting was originally done to thank God for liberating the ancient Jews from the oppression of the Pharaohs and the Jews remember this event during Passover.

Hafiz Abdullah also mentioned that the Prophet’s younger grandson Imam Hussain was tragically martyred on the 10th day of Muharram 680 AD.  He said;

“The heroic martyrdom of Imam Hussain demonstrates to Muslims the need to uphold justice and to fight against tyranny and evil.  They should be prepared to give their lives in similar cause if the need arises not just for Muslim's but for all people”. Hafiz described the peaceful message of the Quran and gave examples of the mercy shown by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) towards his enemies.  This is in total contrast to a minority of extremist people who carry out atrocities in the name of religion.  He also spoke about the tolerance of Islam and quoted the Quran (2:256):

"There is no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way”.

After the meeting, all visitors enjoyed a period of fruitful discussion over a warm buffet.   Hafiz Abdullah will be returning sometime in the New Year to present on other Islamic celebrations.