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A millionaire businessman has been ordered to remove an Islamic message from the side of his luxury house because council chiefs say it is advertising, it emerged today.
Mahmood Ali, 54, fell out with planners over the wording, taken from the Arabic creed, which reads: 'There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger'.
Known as shahada, the message declares the belief in the oneness of God and acceptance of Muhammad as his prophet.
The inscription, in 2ft-high green lettering, has been placed across a first-floor archway on his large detached house in a residential street.
But he is now in a legal battle with planning chiefs, who classed it as the same as an advertising hoarding like a McDonald's or Marks and Spencer banner.
Mr Ali said: 'The message is simply there to bless the house. The symbols are not an advertisement in any sense of the word's use in daily life. 'I chose the sign's green colour to reflect the ambiance of the property's character and its surroundings.'
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