The lead paragraph here says that the soldiers are “building bridges in Afghanistan.” The bedrock assumption here is that the Afghans who come to worship in the mosque will see that the British built it and think, “Say, they aren’t so bad after all.”
And probably some will. But this assumption completely fails to take into account the fact that at least some of the people who go to the mosque, if not a majority, will see this act through the prism of a Qur’anic understanding: “And the Jews will not be pleased with thee, nor will the Christians, till thou follow their creed,” (2:120), so the building of the mosque is just a strategem to that larger end, and the British should still be regarded with suspicion. The jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism, unchallenged, remain in place.
“Army helps build mosque,” by Heather Butler for the Blackpool Gazette (thanks to Twostellas):
A TEAM of Fylde soldiers is building bridges in Afghanistan.
Troops from the Weeton-based Second Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (2 Yorks) arranged for the construction of a new mosque for members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Helmand province.
Local soldiers in the Shorabak Training Facility, near Camp Bastion, were without a place of worship when the project got underway in September.
The British Provincial Reconstruction Team arranged funding and a formal plan for the construction work. It also assigned a representative to oversee the build.
Major Marc Steventon, 2 Yorks Quartermaster at Camp Tombstone, was project manager on site to ensure everything went to plan.
He oversaw 40 local workers and made sure guidelines were being met and that the correct resources were being used.
Maj Steventon said: “The building of this mosque has been a great success. It has been built by local Afghans, using local resources and using local building techniques; all of which is hugely important and significant.”