Multiculturalism took off outside education, too. One of its many tragedies is that minorities coming to Britain to escape persecution have often met more of their tormentors here, funded by the English. Imagine that, as well as taking in Russian Jews from the 1880s, we had also taken in many more Russian Orthodox, and financially assisted their most conservative leaders, ignoring their inflammatory language with a pat on the head and a "Well, that's their culture."

Pakistan's politics are now intertwined with Britain's. After Bhutto was overthrown by General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq and then hanged, life became increasingly tough for minorities. "Zia ul-Haq was a fundamentalist," Hayat says. "He passed a lot of laws that made it difficult. If you want to apply for a passport, you almost have to declare our leader as a heretic. We are worse off than the Christians." The trouble, as many Pakistanis will tell you, is Saudi Arabia. "They're the ones creating the biggest problem," says Hayat. "There were only 200 madrassas when Pakistan came into being. Now there are tens of thousands." And just as the religion of Saudi Arabia has spread to Pakistan, so the politics of Pakistan are brought to the streets of Britain.

Jamaat-e-Islami, a Pakistani party that opposes secularism, has many ties with the Muslim Council of Britain, which became influential under Tony Blair's government (the Home Office and MCB even shared the same speechwriter). When Baitul Futuh was opened in 2003 Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the MCB, refused to recognise it as a mosque. Hayat says the MCB is "not representing Muslims" in Britain.

And while Baitul Futuh does not enjoy good, or indeed any, relations with neighbouring mosques, it had "a big issue" in particular with one in Tooting. "The imam there was very radical, he was making fatwas against our community," says Hayat. "The government made it worse, this Tooting mosque got a lot of money." And this was part of New Labour's "anti-extremism" initiative. The Morden mosque, in contrast, was paid for entirely by donations.