Fury greets plans for U.S. mosques
Islamic community growth faces anti-Muslim uproars
Noise, traffic, parking, the usual. When residents of Georgia’s Newton County found out that imam Mohammad Islam was planning to build a mosque and cemetery on vacant land near a rural highway, they cited the standard list of benign objections.
Then, Monday’s public meeting began, and the hundreds of people jammed into the old brick courthouse confirmed what the Muslims of Georgia already knew. The real issue was their religion. “I don’t want these people and these teachings in our community. Were we not watching our TV on Sept. 11, 2001? Have we lost our mind?” one man said.
“Could be an ISIS (Daesh) training camp,” a woman asked.
“We have the right to protect ourselves and our country,” said a second woman.
“Eight years ago,” said a third woman, “our U.S. government got a Muslim president who has put Muslims in power.”
Mosques have been built in the U.S. since at least1929. Most of them have gone up with little fuss. But, for the past six years, since the time of the outcry over an Islamic centre planned two blocks from Manhattan’s Ground Zero, mosque proposals around the country have regularly been greeted with fear and fury.
In Fredericksburg, Va., last year, police had to end a public meeting after opponents called Muslims “terrorists” and Islam an “evil cult.”
In Bayonne, N.J., this summer, residents have displayed “Save Bayonne!” signs and published a newspaper ad reading “Remember 9/11!”
In Mukilteo, Wash., this spring, the head of an aerospace company start- ed a “mosque watch-group” before apologizing.
And in Kennesaw, Ga., an hour and a half away from Newton County, the council voted in 2014 to reject a mosque amid concerns about terror and Islamic law. Facing a legal threat, it flip-flopped two weeks later.
“I think it’s recognized now that any time there’s a new proposal for a mosque or an Islamic school or a cemetery, anything to do with Islam in America, you’re going to get some degree of bigoted opposition. Sometimes small, sometimes great,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
The intensity of the most recent uproars is the product of a perfect demographic and political storm.
The rapid growth of America’s Islamic community of three million is driving demand for mosques in suburbs and towns where residents lack personal experience with Muslims.
At the same time, attacks inspired by Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, have stoked suspicion of average believers.
And Republican politicians, most notably Donald Trump, have whipped up Islamophobia by suggesting that mosques are dens of nefarious activity. A Facebook group for Newton County mosque opponents is filled with virulent anti-Muslim sentiment. In a message to the Star, though, the person behind the group, who did not give their name, insisted their main concerns are transparency, fairness and the proposed facility’s “massive” impact on local infrastructure. “It’s not about their religion or how they pray,” they said.
And then the person added: “We don’t know these people. Maybe they are peaceful. But maybe not.”
There is no indication whatsoever that they are not.
Mohammad Islam, 50, is a soft-spo- ken immigrant from Bangladesh who moved to Atlanta in 1994, had two American-born children, and opened a mosque in nearby DeKalb County. Over time, he managed to build a friendly relationship with Tom Owens, an aggressive conservative critic of the mosque who happens to live next door.
“I love the imam,” Owens said in an interview. “We get along good.”
Islam said he is confident he can win over Newton County, too.
“I believe we can work it out,” he said, “if we show our tolerance, that we have a positive attitude, we don’t have any ill feelings, we don’t have any grudge toward anyone. If we love and if we care for each other and we respect each other, I think we can overcome these challenges for both communities.”
The existing mosque usually draws 200 to 300 for Friday prayers, most of them low- to middle-income Bangladeshis.
The Newton outrage is “normal,” Islam said, given the natural human fear of the stranger.
“We gotta calm down. Myself, I’m talking about: we, the Muslims, our community. We should calm down and just be patient, and show that we don’t want to fight. With anyone. We want peace. Even if somebody hits us, we’re not going to hit back.”
Islam noted that many of Newton’s 100,000 people are supportive. And he emphasized that the 370-squaremetre mosque is actually a secondary component of his plan for the 55-hectare site — which is across the street from a Baptist church and cemetery.
The main goal, he said, is to build a body-preparation facility attached to a cemetery, which would eliminate the hassle and expense of renting space in non-Muslim funeral homes and then transporting the dead for burial. The mosque, itself, he said, would only be used when someone dies and, even then, only for “five minutes.”
His reassurances have so far been ignored.
Although zoning in Newton County, which is in the Atlanta area, allows for a mosque and a cemetery on the site, and although federal law prohibits local governments from using land rules to infringe on religious freedom, county officials have imposed a five-week moratorium on permits for all places of worship — after concern was expressed that a mosque would make Newton a “prime area” for Arab refugees.
CAIR has alerted the federal justice department.
“We have the law on our side,” Hooper said, “and the opposition generally has nothing but intolerance on their side.”