Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council cancels booking for anti-Islam rally in Portadown Town Hall
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council has cancelled a booking for an anti-Islam rally in Portadown Town Hall, saying that organisers did not provide full details of the event when making the reservation.
The statement came after the council cancelled a booking at Portadown Town Hall for Saturday night past, 17 October.
The booking was made for an organisation called 'The Lord's Work Trust' which had planned an event event billed as 'The Islamic Invasion of the UK & Ireland'.
The organisation bills itself as a Christian Charity that produces “Biblicaly sound Gospel tracts and booklets” and whose objective is “to preach the Gospel, declare sound doctrine & to encourage fellow believers”.
A spokesperson for Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council told the News Letter that it accepts bookings for the use of its facilities from a wide range of groups including church and faith groups.
"All bookings are, however, required to comply with the Council’s standard terms and conditions," a spokeswoman said.
"Each booking request is considered on its individual merits in line with these terms and conditions. The advertised title and proposed content were not included in the information provided to the Council at the time of the booking. Following a review of the booking information and promotional material against its conditions of hire, the Council cancelled the booking with immediate effect.”
Luke Barker from the Lord's Work Trust told the News Letter that he runs conferences on behalf of The Lord's Work Trust, which he said was "a Christian ministry".
He had booked, what he termed a Christian Preaching Conference for 17th October at Portadown Town Hall, which is run by Armagh, Bandridge and Craigavon Council.
The title of the event, he said, was 'The Islamic Invasion of the UK & Ireland' and he had speakers lined up to address "Islam and Immigration from a Christian perspective".
He added: "We were anticipating a crowd of around 200 with seats pre booked.
"This was to be a peaceful, respectful and obviously law abiding event at a venue we have used multiple times before for preaching events on a variety of subjects."
"However, we were informed Friday by email from ABC Council that the conference has been terminated by the Council with immediate effect."
He believes that "Hard Left Pro Palestine agitators" pressed the council to shut down the event, and had taken credit for doing so.
Mr Barker claimed that some objectors may also have been inolved in the Drumcree situation, also in Portadown, but supplied no evidence for his claim.
"We find this development disturbing as this is a direct attack upon free speech and freedom of religion and expression,” he added.
The group was looking for an alternative venue, but it is not known if they succeeded.
"But are we now to be hounded by the Hard Left and cancelled going forwards? Are all government run venues no longer an option now for us now and others?" he concluded.
The Lord’s Work Trust website contains a number of booklets or articiles outlining subject of particular interest to the organisation.
A few examples are:
• Common Sense, What the Bible Has to Say on the Issue of Immigration
• The Reason Why We Must Never Forget The Battle of the Somme
• British Patriotic Songs
• The Reason Why We Remember The Siege Of Londonderry
• The Reason Why We Celebrate The 12th & 13th
• COVID-19 A Mountain Made Out of a Molehill
• A link to a video entitled: ‘Freemasonry - Christian or not?’