A small blow for sanity in Virginia. The road is a private one running through a secretive Muslim community. “Private road named for Muslim is focus of Christian group’s bid,” by Jamie C. Ruff for the Times-Dispatch, with thanks to Twostellas:
…Members of an organization calling itself the Christian Action Network said they want to appear before the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors to request that the name of Sheikh Gilani Lane, the private road running through the Muslim community, be changed.
Martin Mawyer, president of the Forest-based group, showed up at Tuesday’s board meeting to make his case but was not allowed to speak because the issue was not on the agenda. About 30 members of the Muslims of America community were also in attendance but also did not speak.
Members of the Muslim community as well as nearby residents declined to comment when contacted later last week.
The week before, the Christian Action Network, which says it is a nonprofit lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the traditions of the American family and defending the nation against radical Islam, said it dropped from an airplane about 2,500 fliers on the Red House area around the Muslim community. The fliers allege that Sheikh Gilani Lane honors a terrorist and blames him for the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl.
Pearl was reportedly on his way to interview Sheikh Mubarik Gilani, a Muslim cleric in Pakistan, when he was abducted Jan. 23, 2002, in Karachi. Gilani helped found the Muslims of America and the Charlotte County site, as well as several others in rural areas across the country. Federal authorities have alleged that Muslims of America is connected with al-Fuqra and responsible for bombings and murders across the country.
The Christian Action Network’s Web site says the group is one of the nation’s leading grass-roots Christian political organizations with more than 250,000 active members.
“It is outrageous there is a road sign in Charlotte County named after an international terrorist,” Mawyer said in a letter left at the board’s meeting last week. “It is an insult to all the victims of 9/11 to continue to honor a known terrorist by granting him a sign that officially appears on the maps of Charlotte County.”
Sheikh Gilani Lane was established shortly after the Muslim community was developed. about 10 years ago. County rules allow residents to name their private roads.
“We didn’t know who Gilani was, and we felt like it was their business,” Clark said. “But 9/11 changed all that.”
Clark said the Board of Supervisors has referred the issue to the county attorney to decide whether it can even take up the question of the lane’s name without it being an act of discrimination. There is no time frame for when the attorney will finish his research.
“All I can do is wait to hear from our attorney and the board will decide what or what not to do,” Clark said.
“Changing the name of the road is not going to change the situation we are faced with,” he said. “It wouldn’t change anything going on in that community.”
That is true.