Report on Muslim prayer centre speaks volumes about Canadian values

At long last, Waterloo councillors vote Monday on an application for a zone change to allow a house on Erbsville Road to be used as a Muslim prayer centre.

There are plenty of people living in nearby Laurelwood who strenuously object to this request. But I’d be shocked if council turned the prayer centre down.

That’s because the lengthy, carefully detailed report by city staff, which supports the zone change request, is as close to an eloquent statement of Canadian values as a planning document can get. It says:

Neither the city’s zoning bylaw nor the Official Plan limits the number of places used for spiritual purposes, nor does it differentiate between different types of spiritual uses.

Although many people are worried that the centre would bring more traffic to Erbsville Road, that is not a planning concern. Erbsville Road was designed to accommodate up to 20,000 vehicles a day, and now averages 11,800. It can easily handle more traffic.

There is “substantial” physical separation between the property on Erbsville Road and the backyards of adjacent homes on Old Oak Drive. This minimizes any disruption to neighbours.

If the city denies the zone change, and the Muslim Association of Canada, which owns the house and brought the application, decides to appeal that decision, it will cost the city money to fight that appeal.

The report makes no mention of the “feng shui” argument. Many of those who object to the proposed prayer centre are people of East Asian descent who live in the nearby Laurelwood subdivision. They have said a prayer centre is against the principles of “feng shui,” an ancient Chinese belief system that studies the placement of objects, buildings and communities so as to maximize the flow of positive energy.

In that belief system, a home that’s too close to a cemetery, or any place of worship, will attract bad luck because of the disembodied spirits believed to be lingering nearby.

By omitting any mention of “feng shui,” the report indicates that, while we may believe whatever we want, those beliefs don’t have the power to dictate to other people how they should behave.

The report repeatedly points out that what the Muslim community is asking for is no different from that which has already been given to other religious groups.

“Locating a spiritual use in a residential area is common practice in Waterloo,” says the report. Eventually, it notes, the Muslim centre might like to have a child care centre, a residence for a spiritual leader, or a private school nearby. Christian churches have all been granted such land uses.

And finally, a letter was included from Rabbi Moshe Goldman of the Rohr Chabad Centre for Jewish Life, which supports the Muslim request.

“Places of worship belong in close proximity to residential neighbourhoods, not in strip malls on the outskirts of cities or in the core amongst the bustle of business,” said Goldman.

“As a community, we cannot claim to welcome those who worship differently than the majority only so long as they remain a small, unobtrusive group.”

These are wise words. It’s difficult to imagine that the moderate yet cautious minds on Waterloo council will disregard them.

Council meets Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Waterloo City Hall.