ENGLAND: CHURCH DOWN, MOSQUE UP

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

The London mayor is pro-Muslim and anti-Christian.

The largest mosque in Western Europe is to be built alongside the 2012 London Olympics. For their church property, London’s Kingsway International Christian Church—the largest in Europe—has been shunted.

It is anti-Christianity at work in England. It is pro-Islam at work in England.

The church numbering 10,000 must now squash for six services each Sunday into an old movie house that can seat 1000. It’s in East London.

The congregation lives in London. They don’t live in East London.

Property in the suburbs is too far for parishioners to travel. Besides, property owners out there don’t want the mega-church.

So the church literally is without a proper home while the Islamics get the choice property.

"I'm probably one of the few pastors around the world who has to preach five times every Sunday," said Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo per Dale Hurd, CBN News Sr. Reporter.

"We were left high and dry, to face the wrath of the community," Ashimolowo said. "When you have a church of our magnitude with 90 percent ethnic minorities from about 46 nations, the first thing that comes to the mind of the neighborhood is, 'Oh my God, this large church is coming to our neighborhood.'

"When the largest church has its property taken from it and made to operate from a small building, that is a form of persecution.

"KICC is the largest church in Western Europe, and I think that ought to have been celebrated. Rather, I believe that we were victims of the fact that it was a Christian church that has succeeded. The megachurch growth of the large church is so unknown to them. In fact, they call KICC ‘the American style church led by a Nigerian pastor.’

“Alan Craig, a Christian city councilman running for London mayor, calls it ‘a perfect illustration’ of the City of London's ‘prejudice against Christianity.’

"It's just appalling the way they've been treated। KICC are left swinging in the wind. They have no permanent home, as we stand here today."