Across nation, mosque projects meet opposition
In all recent conflicts, opponents have said their problem is Islam itself
Protester Greg Johnson, right, and counter protesters Ina Marshall and Tim Foster, left, argue during demonstration against a planned mosque and Islamic community center on July 14 in front of the Rutherford County Courthouse in Murfreesboro, Tenn. By Laurie Goodstein
While a high-profile battle rages over a mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, heated confrontations have also broken out in communities across the country where mosques are proposed for far less hallowed locations.
In Murfreesboro, Tenn., Republican candidates have denounced plans for a large Muslim center proposed near a subdivision, and hundreds of protesters have turned out for a march and a county meeting.
In late June, in Temecula, Calif., members of a local Tea Party group took dogs and picket signs to Friday prayers at a mosque that is seeking to build a new worship center on a vacant lot nearby.
In Sheboygan, Wis., a few Christian ministers led a noisy fight against a Muslim group that sought permission to open a mosque in a former health food store bought by a Muslim doctor.
At one time, neighbors who did not want mosques in their backyards said their concerns were over traffic, parking and noise — the same reasons they might object to a church or a synagogue. But now the gloves are off.
In all of the recent conflicts, opponents have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the Cons ution with Islamic Shariah law.
Related content Analysis: NYC mayor eloquent advocate for mosque ADL: Fareed Zakaria returns award over WTC mosque These local skirmishes make clear that there is now widespread debate about whether the best way to uphold America’s democratic values is to allow Muslims the same religious freedom enjoyed by other Americans, or to pull away the welcome mat from a faith seen as a singular threat.
“What’s different is the heat, the volume, the level of hostility,” said Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky. “It’s one thing to oppose a mosque because traffic might increase, but it’s different when you say these mosques are going to be nurturing terrorist bombers, that Islam is invading, that civilization is being undermined by Muslims.”
Feeding the resistance is a growing cottage industry of authors and bloggers — some of them former Muslims — who are invited to speak at rallies, sell their books and testify in churches. Their message is that Islam is inherently violent and incompatible with America.
But they have not gone unanswered. In each community, interfaith groups led by Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, rabbis and clergy members of other faiths have defended the mosques. Often, they have been slower to organize than the mosque opponents, but their numbers have usually been larger.
The mosque proposed for the site near ground zero in Lower Manhattan cleared a final hurdle last week before the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hailed the decision with a forceful speech on religious liberty. While an array of religious groups supported the project, opponents included the Anti-Defamation League, an influential Jewish group, and prominent Republicans like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker.
'Nobody notices'
A smaller controversy is occurring in Temecula, about 60 miles north of San Diego, involving a typical stew of religion, politics and anti-immigrant sentiment. A Muslim community has been there for about 12 years and expanded to 150 families who have outgrown their makeshift worship space in a warehouse, said Mahmoud Harmoush, the imam, a lecturer at California State University, San Bernardino. The group wants to build a 25,000-square-foot center, with space for classrooms and a playground, on a lot it bought in 2000.
Mr. Harmoush said the Muslim families had contributed to the local food bank, sent truckloads of supplies to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and participated in music nights and Thanksgiving events with the local interfaith council.
“We do all these activities and nobody notices,” he said. “Now that we have to build our center, everybody jumps to make it an issue.”
Recently, a small group of activists became alarmed about the mosque. Diana Serafin, a grandmother who lost her job in tech support this year, said she reached out to others she knew from attending Tea Party events and anti-immigration rallies. She said they read books by critics of Islam, including former Muslims like Walid Shoebat, Wafa Sultan and Manoucher Bakh. She also attended a meeting of the local chapter of ACT! for America, a Florida-based group that says its purpose is to defend Western civilization against Islam.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38612000...ew_york_times/
Those crazy tea pottiers..
Last edited by George Gervin's Afro; 08-08-2010 at 09:25 AM.
The top 5% are loving it.
While the racists, nativists, xenophobes, "Christian" supremacists are confused and distracted by demagogued bull and grab the spotlight, the top 5%, the vampire face-hugging squid, continues sucking dry the lower 95%'s wealth.
remind which non-christian group/non-white hasn't faced the judgment, ire, and condemnation of conservative white "christians" over the years?
Apparently Newt Gingrich has bought into this nonsense as well. I heard him this weekend while I was driving to W.Texas. He was ranting about the Mosque and the Koran and all that false dichotomy bull .
Very dissapointing.
Just curious.
Do you think Sharia courts should be established in the US and given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases, as they have allowed in Britain?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...sed-doors.html
Rulings include:
"that no Muslim woman may marry a non-Muslim man unless he converts to Islam and that any children of a woman who does should be taken from her until she marries a Muslim".
approval of "polygamous marriage and enforce a woman's duty to have sex with her husband on his demand".
"a male child belongs to the father after the age of seven, regardless of cir stances".
No Sharia court should ever cir vent Local/State/Federal courts. I have no problem with them if the extent of their power is excommunication. That's religious freedom. It's the same thing as a church forcing an elder to step down after it is discovered that he is having an affair.
No. so what?
oh wait the guy who is behind the mosque mentioned something in the past about sharia law and the USA..... oh the horrah!!!
Why are you so worried about Sharia courts that people voluntarily subject themselves to, Darrin? Are you planning to voluntarily submit yourself to one?
I wouldn't be completely surprised if something like that could be accomplished in many cases by binding arbitration if the parties voluntarily agree to it.
Of course, I doubt any decision forcing a woman to have sex against her will could really be binding in the US.
Just curious, what does this have to do with protesting the construction of a mosque in Temecula?
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