Locals in Orland Park, Illinois are resisting the construction of a large new mosque in the area. CAIR is crying racism, of course (I wish they'd tell me how exactly Islam is a race), and even using the townspeoples' fears of Islamic radicalism as evidence.
But wait a minute: what guarantee can CAIR give that Islamic radicals will not enter this mosque? After all, as Charles points out at LGF, it happened in nearby Bridgeview.
From the Daily Southtown, with thanks to LGF:
The concerns of some about the mosque, planned for 16530 104th Ave., is a prime example of the hardships faced by American Muslims since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, religious experts and observers said.They said many Americans still know little or nothing about Islam. Though there are no official statistics, the Council for American-Islamic Relations says backlashes against new or enlarged mosques are becoming increasingly common.
"Sometimes people don't even realize the concerns they have are fueled by prejudices," said Rabiha Ahmed, spokeswoman for the council. "But you can't (defeat a mosque plan) if you're openly racist. So, they come up with issues like noise and traffic and parking to hide their real issues."
"Sometimes people look at what they think will be perceived as their best argument, even if that may not be their real argument," Orland Park Trustee Patricia Gira said.
Aminah McCloud, director of DePaul University's Islamic World Studies program, said a lack of knowledge about the Muslim community makes it harder to break through people's prejudices.
"Churches and synagogues don't have to do a PR campaign to build their houses of worship," she said. "(But) to judge by the media coverage, you would think there's a Muslim terrorist around every corner."
About 150 residents packed an Orland Park Plan Commission meeting this month, with many objecting to the mosque, the first of the village's 25 houses of worship that would not be a Christian church. Plan commissioners approved the plan, sending it on to the village board.
Most of the opponents said they were concerned only about the mosque worsening traffic problems in the area. But some were openly worried about the building drawing Islamic extremists — what one resident called "the elephant in the room."
"My feeling is they (mosque opponents) were tip-toeing around their real issues," said Khalid Mozaffar, co-chairman of the Southwest Interfaith Team and a mosque supporter. "If you stood out in the hallway after (the plan commission meeting), it was all about Muslims coming to town, not about traffic."
Amy DeRogatis, a professor in Religion in American Culture at Michigan State University, said religious tensions always have been part of America, but outside political factors — such as the 9-11 attacks — force those tensions into the spotlight.
McCloud is optimistic that the Orland Park mosque issue will not deteriorate into an ugly controversy, as has happened elsewhere in the Chicago area — including in Palos Heights in 2000, where a mosque was rejected, resulting in a federal lawsuit that's still pending.
McCloud said she's impressed with the openness of the Orland Park mosque organizers and the public discussion about the mosque.
The next public meeting on the mosque will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the village hall, when the village board's planning and zoning committees review the proposal.
Some of the mosque foes said they plan to make the mosque's funding and residents' fear of terrorism the focus of upcoming hearings.
Trustee James Dodge said he understands why people, given world events, may be worried, but turning the hearings into an anti-Muslim battle would be unfortunate.
"At the intersection of fear and ignorance is hatred. That's it," he said.
Of course the mosque may attract terrorists, and a church might attract KKK members, or a synaguage some Kommeni nutcase. That is no reason not to allow it being built; that is one of the + - of a free country. If we, as Americans, fall prey to fearing our fellow citizens the enemy has won.
9/11 is probable cause enough to seek assurance from Muslims who want to build Mosques in the US.
eneri....When was the last time a Christian Church Or Jewish Synagogue openly preached the destruction of all Non Christians/Jews or took to sending suicide bombers into the streets or planes into buildings?
I am finished allowing avowed "holy" murders to hide behind political correctness...If Muslims don't want to be suspected then come out against Islamists specifically and denounce the murder and violence of the Quran...
If you have nothing to hide, you should not mind others checking you out...
Eneri….Get REAL here!! Mosques attracting terrorists? Mosques are PRODUCING terrorists!!
What eneri seems to be forgetting is that Islam is first and foremost a socio-political movement. As Hugh has stated in his "Islam for the Perplexed" essay, we Infidels would and should not be alarmed at prayers, charity, etc. However, the core of Islam is a movement to establish a theocracy world-wide, to force the whole world to live under Sharia (that is, like 9th century Arabs) and to physically fight those who resist. Our resistance amounts to oppression in their eyes. Muslims feel that they should be able to do or say anything to promote the faith, including lie about it. They demand rights for themselves that they do not allow where Islam reigns, like Saudia Arabia.
Every mosque is another nail in our coffin. They should not be allowed tax-exempt status because their main function is political.
"Churches and synagogues don't have to do a PR campaign to build their houses of worship," she said. "(But) to judge by the media coverage, you would think there's a Muslim terrorist around every corner."
Well, yeah, but...it only takes ONE terrorist around ONE corner to ruin your whole day!
I want to go back to the day when you could go anywhere, anytime and not fear terrorists at all. Is that asking too much?
The grand majority of terrorists are Muslim. Less Muslims in the country, less terrorism. It's mathematical. We must regulate this threat through regulation of our borders!
In America, we advocate freedom of religion and freedom FROM religion. Do your own thing, leave others alone. But Muslims have this unGodly command from their Koran to make us ALL into Muslims and bring their divine(?)Sharia law down on all of us. Their book teaches that people cannot govern themselves, cannot resolve human problems without the rules of the Koran to be followed to the letter by some cleric dude who has sworn to uphold it.
Of course, since humans (they believe) are not ABLE to govern their behaviour, it makes sense that this clergy person can be corrupted and become greedy and drunk with power. And who judges him? Ah yes, Allah will judge him. Oh great! The book says, 'If a cleric or judge is doing wrong, be patient and Allah will deal with him'. You know, he will get his comeuppance in the next life, where by the way, everything that is important happens anyway. This life is not important to these radicals. Only the next life.
They are amazed that we care so much about this life and are not focused on worshiping Allah instead of bettering ourselves and trying to be happy and productive - here on earth. In their 'book', this is a waste of time because they are taught to live for the hereafter.
If we look at the ways we are different, no wonder the two cultures are incompatible.
We are at present DEFENDING our culture, while they seem to be on the OFFENSIVE, here and in many other places around the world. I think they believe that Allah is ready for them to act, that it is the 'end-times' like some of our fundamentalist radical true believers think. Not that I mind that our true believers think that way, as long as they don't kill me so I can go to heaven faster. Or blow up the world for God's glory.
But the Christian religion forbids murder and suicide, forbids killing except in self defense, so we are usually safe from them, except in the case of abortion doctor murders. There, Christian rads go off the deep end, but JIHAD or killing for God is not widespread in the doctrine.
This is an important difference in our religions and must be considered before we attempt to try to be tolerant and 'just get along'. Can it truly be done - for long?
Patricia said, "In America, we advocate freedom of religion and freedom FROM religion."
No we don't, Patricia. The concept of "freedom from religion" is a late 20th century PC invention by censorious people who want to banish all discussion of theology from the public square. All faiths that are honest faiths (Islam is by definition dishonest for it tells its practitioners to lie about it) are public as well as private. You don't have the Constituional (or even state) right to not be offended.
An occasion presents itself -- as all fights over all mosques will present themselves -- to inquire into the nature of how mosques are used. What, for example, explains the frequent raids in Europe, in which arms, forged passports, huge sums of money, videocassettes praising Bin Laden and showing gruesome treatment of non-Muslims, have been found? What explains mosques as the most heavily fortified buildings in Iraq, from which American soldiers are fired upon (and in turn, hold their fire until the very last)?
What could be in those Friday Prayer sermons that so often leads to violence, and not only in Israel, by those who come out of them? What is it in the Qur'an and the hadith, what specific texts, are used by the imams in their sermons? Are the texts which preach hatred of Infidels simply trivial and inconsequential? Or are they, in fact, the very heart and soul of Islam as a geopolitical cult, a belief-system that owes its origins to the need to construct such an ideology in order to promote, and justify, conquest by pagan Arabs -- who needed their own faith -- of far richer, more advanced, more populous Christians and Jews?
Let this, and every such occasion, be one where the media are asked to scrutinize the texts of Islam, and the historical record of Islam in its treatment of non-Muslims, and the role of daw'a in the furthering of the Jihad in order to swallow up dar al-Harb.
Pedagogic opportunities should not be missed. There is great resistance to seeing, and stating, what is becoming obvious. Well, that resistance has to be overcome. The world is not Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Islam is not a religion of "peace" and "tolerance" but a belief-system that encourages a manichaean division of the world between Believer and Unbeliever. No other division really matters.
Let every lawsuit, every zoning permit, every single event involving Islam to become the occasion for sustained and serious examination of the tenets of Islam. Not everyone will remain permanently immune to reality, even though several columnists for the New York Times are doing their best to prove it is possible.
Nomorejihad, Patricia is correct; we are indeed free not to believe, if that is what we wish to do. The fundamental concept is to protect our freedom to think. Thomas Jefferson, one of the most important contributors to the Constitution, said that he didn't care if someone believed in twenty gods or none.
This means you have the freedom to believe or not believe whatever you wish, as does Patricia, as do I.
If we were not free to think, we would be another version of Islam. Thinking is their enemy--it must not become ours.
The problem is one of behavior, not belief. You may believe it's just hunky-dory to eliminate the Jews, for example, but you may not act on that belief.
The reason you may not act on that belief is because to do so would be to violate the rights of any person who is killed for a reason other than self-defense.
This is not the forum in which to deduce the nature of rights, but the short version is: Your rights stop at my skin.
I would also suspect that when an Islamist is arrested by westerners he must regard this as an effrontary to Islam. No infidel has the right to arrest a muslim, because they are below Islam.
In the case of Hamza, this will cause massive protest. The essence of that protest is not that he might be guilty of murder, but that NO infidel has the right to arrest and charge a Muslim cleric.
IN other words they consider themselves OUTSIDE the laws written by the Infidels.
Only muslim law can do judge them .
I think that this is a point hardly ever mentioned.
Although not an american, but I will like to give a suggestion based on experience.
The issue of biulding a mosque is synonymous to allowing the wild pig into your house to sniff, if the wild pig sniffs, it will try to enter through the door, if it enters through the door, it will look for food, if it look for food, and finds food, it will want more, if it gets more it will still look for more etc.
It is very better to stop the idea before it grows into habbit.
Ask the muslims how many churches or other places of worship except muslims' were allowed to be biult in Saudi Arabia?
Their law doesn't allow that, but here they are, they want to biuld their mosque in a civilised environment.
Do you know what biulding a mosque means, they will be shouting at the top of their voice with a very big loudspeaker attached to the outside every five times a day, starting from as early as 5.30am, not only that it will create tension for people who are used to peace, it can even cause heart attack for those susceptible, not only that, it could serve as a safe haven for terrorist.
The mosque we used to have in our street was a problem, until it was sold, and changed to a shop!
It is estimated that up to 80% of mosques in the U.S. are led by imams from Saudi Arabia, et al.
Hugh is correct, this is a brilliant opportunity for the media to explore the history of Islam and to lay bare the FACTS about Muslims and the "religion's" imperialistic, hegemonic aims.
It is time to shine the light on Islam and the teachings of the Qur'an.
Lili
Another tree hugging, kumbayah singing America!
"Of course the mosque may attract terrorists, and a church might attract KKK members, or a synaguage some Kommeni nutcase. That is no reason not to allow it being built; that is one of the + - of a free country. If we, as Americans, fall prey to fearing our fellow citizens the enemy has won." Eneri
Hello! Yes! You're right! "It's about muslims, stupid"!!
"My feeling is they (mosque opponents) were tip-toeing around their real issues," said Khalid Mozaffar, co-chairman of the Southwest Interfaith Team and a mosque supporter. "If you stood out in the hallway after (the plan commission meeting), it was all about Muslims coming to town, not about traffic."
Many people think this statement appears in the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution and therefore must be strictly enforced. However, the words: "separation", "church", and "state" do not even appear in the first amendment. The first amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." The statement about a wall of separation between church and state was made in a letter on January 1, 1802, by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut. The congregation heard a widespread rumor that the Congregationalists, another denomination, were to become the national religion. This was very alarming to people who knew about religious persecution in England by the state established church. Jefferson made it clear in his letter to the Danbury Congregation that the separation was to be that government would not establish a national religion or dictate to men how to worship God. Jefferson's letter from which the phrase "separation of church and state" was taken affirmed first amendment rights. Jefferson wrote:
I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. (1)
The reason Jefferson choose the expression "separation of church and state" was because he was addressing a Baptist congregation; a denomination of which he was not a member. Jefferson wanted to remove all fears that the state would make dictates to the church. He was establishing common ground with the Baptists by borrowing the words of Roger Williams, one of the Baptist's own prominent preachers. Williams had said:
"When they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made his garden a wilderness, as at this day. And that there fore if He will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world"...(2)
The "wall" was understood as one-directional; its purpose was to protect the church from the state. The world was not to corrupt the church, yet the church was free to teach the people Biblical values.
The American people knew what would happen if the State established the Church like in England. Even though it was not recent history to them, they knew that England went so far as forbidding worship in private homes and sponsoring all church activities and keeping people under strict dictates. They were forced to go to the state established church and do things that were contrary to their conscience. No other churches were allowed, and mandatory attendance of the established church was compelled under the Conventicle Act of 1665. Failure to comply would result in imprisonment and torture. The people did not want freedom from religion, but freedom of religion. The only real reason to separate the church from the state would be to instill a new morality and establish a new system of beliefs. Our founding fathers were God-fearing men who understood that for a country to stand it must have a solid foundation; the Bible was the source of this foundation. They believed that God's ways were much higher than Man's ways and held firmly that the Bible was the absolute standard of truth and used the Bible as a source to form our government.
So, what we really have here is a mosk violating noise by-laws, and asking the state to FORCE their cult onto the people. Imagine listening to Islamic jubberish 5 times a day beginning at 5 am. Imagine 50 mosks in the same city do this all day long at different times.
Sorry muslims, keep your cult to yourself, Remember, the USA is still founded as a Christian society.
We have the freedom to worship, or not. In fact, God himself says he wants no one to be forced to know him, rather it must be of your own free will.
Remember oh cultists of Islam, God also tells you not to kill in his name. But Muslims don't believe in the true God, only Satan, who wants you to kill He claims more souls that way.
Michigan is Islam if you keep track of other going ons in the region.
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — Some birthday!
Instead of just enjoying her cake and presents, 9-year-old Marwa's stuck with making a decision she feels may be too hard for someone her age: Should she don the hijab, or veil, as her teacher suggested?
"I would have to change all my dresses! That's too hard to do! And, I'm too young," Marwa tells the teacher.
As if the choice isn't hard enough, in a fitful night of sleep, she is visited by devils who tell her the veil is "old fashioned," and that she's too pretty to cover her beauty. Then, the angels come. "What's important is your soul, not your body," they urge.
"How long is this path?" she wonders, as she wanders down a road that she hopes will lead to the answers. "Is this life? How could this be life when we don't know where we're going."
Marwa's symbolic struggle is presented in a play entitled "The Path." Like any other play, her decision is predetermined. But at a recent celebration organized by the Muslim Scouts of Michigan at the Islamic House of Wisdom, 43 girls ages 8 to 11 followed in Marwa's footsteps with no script.
Watching the play, they knew how Marwa felt. It's the traditional battle of secularism versus religion, fought in the minds of prepubescent girls.
The celebration, known as a Takleef festival, marks their entry into spiritual adulthood, a stage where they have accepted the responsibility of the veil.
It's a responsibility that 8-year-old Noor Hage — one of the girls participating — doesn't take lightly. For Noor, like the others, it's a lifelong obligation.
"My mom wears a scarf, but my big sister doesn't yet," she says, explaining she thought hard about the sacrifices she would have to make in wearing the veil. "It's a big change. You have to change the kinds of clothes you wear. You have to wear long sleeve shirts and pants or long skirts and stuff. It's my choice, though. No one told me what to do."
Before the play, the girls line up in two groups — one dressed in white, the other in pink gowns and hijabs. On stage, they approach a copy of the Quran held by another girl. Gently kissing its spine, they pass underneath as parents in the audience snap away with digital cameras.
"That's my baby," beams one father.
For Marwa, that fanfare was still a troubled night's sleep away.
"Oh God, I'm very tired," Marwa says, praying as she walks down the path, her fingers twirling a lock of her wavy brown hair. "I don't know where this path begins and ends."
Creeping up alongside her on the stage, against a backdrop of shimmering stars, four devils whisper and sing: "Are you going to wear the hijab and hide your beauty and your cuteness?"
"It's too early to hide my beauty," agrees Marwa, only to be reminded by the angels that "your beauty is in your faith."
Organizers of the Takleef celebration are well aware of the spiritual and cultural challenges these girls face in deciding to wear the hijab.
"A couple of these girls are taking the veil before their mothers are," says 38-year-old Ali Ibrahim, one of the scout volunteers organizing the celebration. "We even have one girl whose parents are not convinced and are trying to get her to take off the veil. May God guide her."
For many in the West who argue that Islam oppresses women, the hijab has become the main symbol of that repression.
A stricter version of the veil, called a niqab, has been targeted by at least one Arab government. It sought to ban young girls from wearing it in school for much the same reason as the French government recently banned religious headgear in the classrooms — they say it would thwart the spread of a more fundamentalist brand of Islam. The niqab leaves only a woman's eyes exposed.
A song airs over the loudspeakers during the play, summing up, in Simon and Garfunkel-like acoustical melodies, a Muslim girl's answer to criticism:
The hijab "is a simple cloth to preserve her dignity/So lift the veil from your heart/And see the heart of purity."
Howsaa Idriss, an 8-year-old second-grader at Hayes Elementary School in Westland, wonders how her classmates will react to seeing her wearing the veil. While many of the girls at the celebration attend school in the heavily Arab and Muslim Detroit suburbs of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, few Muslim students attend Hayes.
Howsaa's 14-year-old sister, Fatimah, who also is veiled, predicts she will be teased a little. But Howsaa says she is convinced the decision she reached about a month ago is the right one. She put on the hijab for the first time the night of the celebration.
"I don't know what they'll say," says Howsaa, referring to her classmates. "I've thought about this for a while and I know God will help me."
Marwa's dilemma ends with her deciding to follow the path set by the angels. Crowding around her, they help her put on the hijab. But there is no make-believe in this scene for 8 1/2-year-old Duaa Koussan, the actress playing Marwa. At the end of the show, the hijab will stay on.
Roused from her sleep and dressed in a billowing gown, white hijab held in place by a gold wreath, Marwa smiles to her mother: "Don't worry about me from this day on, Mama. I'm grown up now."
America is turning Islam faster than you think, especially that region.
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1085188443215060.xml
"If you stood out in the hallway after (the plan commission meeting), it was all about Muslims coming to town, not about traffic."
Maybe this dude should ask himself why Chistian people don't fear Jewish synogogues, Hindu or Buddhist temples coming to their neighborhood.
I used to work in orland park and I live about a mile from the mosque in bridgeview. On fridays the traffic is horrendous. The town of bridgeview looks like something out of the west bank. It used to be a sleepy little industrial town. Now it is ravaged by arab and hispanic gangs. As for orland park it is probably the nicest town (pop 60000) in southwestern cook county. Big houses, good schools, large commercial tax base, but it is being overrun by chicago democratic machine bosses. These people are allies of chicago boss mayor daley. Orland township is heavily republican but the voters never turn out for muni elections, thus the PC crowd runs the show.Maybe the residents will see the light and vote out their leaders, then again they are probably too concerned with their BMWs and 401ks to notice.
Don't allow any new mosques to be built and close down the existing ones.
Just wishful thinking. It will never happen.
"Sometimes people don't even realize the concerns they have are fueled by prejudices," said Rabiha Ahmed, spokeswoman for the council.
What? Are they Psychiatrists now? No new mosques are necessary. What are they needed for. We know enough about Islam. They continue to say we know little to nothing about it, perhaps as a lure. We see Islam at work every day.
And I agree, since when is Islam a race?
keep watching for the village of Orland Park to suddenly change the proposed meeting date away from June 21, 2004, as they have already stated they will not discuss mosque related issues at the June 7th meeting. Call ahead to the village to find out when and where they will be hiding the voting board members. They are hiding behind a transparent issue. This is not religion, this is money. Money rules and governs the Orland Park board. This is about money, securing it, mapping it and moving it to a questionable if not problematic destination courtesy of the mosque membership. Citizens, take off your blinders, unplug your ears and prepare. It's time to UNMASK THE MOSQUE. Concerned citizens are not ignorant or bigots. Rather, they are insightful and demand facts, not lies, not rhetoric. This project deserves the deepest scrutiny available. Legitimize it to all first. For those mosque supporters, don't whine about driving to a center away from Orland Park. Get used to it.
Islam is a fearful and evil cult. A mosque is a place to intimidate and plan to kill innocent people. We have suffered from this evil cult in the past 25 years in Iran.