Plans Unveiled for Europe’s Biggest Muslim Cemetery
Plans for Europe's biggest Muslim cemetery have been unveiled by the billionaire Issa brothers who recently bought a major stake in Asda.
The 84-acre Issa Memorial Garden would be built to the west of Blackburn, Lancashire, and will have 35,000 burial plots - covering a space the size of 40 football pitches.
This new site dwarfs the current largest Muslim cemetery, The Garden of Peace, which opened in East London in 2002 and holds 10,000 plots, all of which are now occupied.
The Issa Foundation, the charitable arm of billionaire brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa's business empire, put forward the plans in part due to an increase in deaths from Covid.
In a statement, the Issa Foundation said: '[The] need for Muslim burial plots within the North West of England has become critical, a situation made worse by Covid 19.
'The proposal is a matter of public interest for the Muslim community and is of strategic importance for the North West area.'
At the start of November, more than 200 people met to rally against plans for a cemetery, prior to the them being published.
The foundation has now registered an application with Hyndburn Council for the creation of the cemetery, located off Blackburn Road, near the small town of Oswaldtwistle.
The documents detail a provision for 663 car parking spaces spanning the full length of the site's northern boundary, parallel with Blackburn Road.
This new site is just up the road from the billionaire Issa brothers' £100million Frontier Park complex, which has a service station, several food outlets, and a 'Hampton by Hilton' hotel.
The planning application details that the cemetery will be built on undeveloped agricultural land, lying within the greenbelt.
It adds: 'The site is of an undulating nature, with levels rising steeply in a southerly direction.'
In order to build the cemetery, The Issa Foundation said that 'extensive landscaping, both of a strategic and ornamental nature' will be required.
Source: DailyMail
