A DUNDEE mosque and Islamic cultural centre is to improve its sec-urity by installing CCTV after an attack on the site of a proposed mosque in Perth.
Troublemakers also hurled abuse at mosque staff in Dundee via an intercom link, and CCTV could help to catch similar abusers in future. The Scottish Islamic and Cultural Centre, also known as Jam’i Mosque Bilal, is one of the three centres and places of worship for the Muslim community in Dundee.
The building in Dyra Street was converted to a mosque and The Scottish Islamic and Cultural Centre in December 1996.
Safety concerns have grown following the increase in attacks on mosques and those attending them across Britain, but the planning application for the CCTV cameras follows a disturbing incident in the nearby city of Perth last September.
Racist vandals sprayed anti-Muslim graffiti at a site secured by the Perth Islamic Society for its new place of worship — the words “No Muslims” were painted over a sign on Jeanfield Road where the Society hopes to build a £1 million mosque.
The Scottish Defence League also organised a protest in Perth against the new mosque but the neo-fascist group were far outnumbered by those protesting against them.
The Dundee application states the CCTV is necessary for the premises “to increase the security and safety of mosque attendees.”
The application added: “This proposal is in response to recent attacks outside British mosques.”
Police across the UK recorded 110 hate crimes directed at Muslim places of worship between March and July 2017, more than double the 47 reports in the same six-month period in 2016.
A trustee for the Dundee centre, Mahmud Salwar Rathor, told a local newspaper centre staff had already been subjected to abuse through the intercom. He said: “The installation of the cameras is entirely for the safety of the community.”
Bashir Chohan, chairman of the Dundee Islamic Society, told the same newspaper: “The reality is the authorities cannot be there all the time. ‘At least with the security cameras there would be some sort evidence there to catch the culprits.”
Darren Osborne, 48, is currently on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in London charged with murdering one person and injuring nine others by driving a van into a crowd of worshippers outside Finsbury Park Mosque last July.
CCTV footage has featured extensively in the trial.
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