Far from Ground Zero, other plans for mosques run into vehement opposition

and the opposition isn't always who you'd think. :o

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/22/AR2010082202895.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead

From the article (from p.2): ...Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, is a quiet town of 100,000 people, largely white conservative Christians. Residents take pride in the historic town square skirting an antebellum courthouse, the site of a famous Confederate raid during the Civil War. Patriotic banners line the lampposts. On the highway, there's a Sonic drive-in every few miles. Gospel music radio stations are as numerous as those playing country music.

The 250 or so families -- about 1,000 people -- who worship at the existing Islamic Center come from around the globe and include doctors, car salesmen and students from nearby Middle Tennessee State University. Members of the mosque have raised about $600,000 to buy land and prepare the site for a 10,000-square-foot gathering place. Plans for a school, pool and cemetery are expected to take years to complete.

But the vision of a large-scale complex has caused consternation among locals.

"What I sense is a certain amount of fear fueling the animosity," said Jim Daniel, a former county commissioner and former county Republican Party chairman, sitting down for lunch one day last week at City Cafe. Residents worry that "the Muslims coming in here will keep growing in numbers and override our system of law and impose sharia law."

Daniel and his dining partner -- the local Democratic Party chairman, Jonathon Fagan, 32 -- say they're uneasy about the proposal but agree that Rutherford County followed the law when it approved the plans for the Islamic Center in May.

"We have to allow them freedom of religion," Fagan said with a tight smile. "It takes courage to live in a free country. We have to have the courage to do that, even if we don't agree with it."

The man leading the fight against the mosque is a stocky 44-year-old correctional officer named Kevin Fisher. After he heard about the proposal, he voiced his opposition with an op-ed in the town's alternative weekly.

Fisher spent his formative years in Buffalo, where a homegrown terrorist cell of Yemeni Americans was uncovered in 2002. Its presence in a place so familiar haunts Fisher to this day, he said. He is well aware that clerics at U.S. mosques have been accused of espousing radical views in the years before and after Sept. 11.

And he pointed out that one of the Murfreesboro mosque's board members was suspended after the discovery of a MySpace page where he had posted Arabic poetry and a photo of the founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas. Leaders of the mosque said their internal investigation showed no wrongdoing, and they are cooperating with federal authorities looking into the matter.

"So many things about Islam are disconcerting," Fisher said. "As they get bigger, there will be concerns about the ideology, what they preach and what they believe."

Fisher, who is African American, chafes when the mosque's supporters "dial up the rhetoric from the '60s" to attack opponents by accusing them of bigotry against Muslims.

"It's offensive to me," he said. His stepmother "was dragged off restaurant stools in the 1960s and has cigarette burns in her arm. That's discrimination."


The extreme ignorance and paranoia aside, i.e. that a small and marginalized demographic group is somehow going to magically impose its will on a much larger and very strident population, isn't as telling as the ancestry and ignorance of one of the major opponents, the above-mentioned Kevin Fisher. The fact that a black man is a leading advocate of discrimination in an area that is still little removed from the 19th Century and probably wouldn't want him as a neighbor is just galling. :(

All lawn jockeys, whether they're at the national, state, or local levels, all seem to have one main thing in common: the belief that they will be respected by the larger population for taking a stance in favor of racism and/or bigotry against justice and what's right. It's never worked, at least not for long. It hasn't worked for Alan Keyes, Mikey Steele, Thomas Sowell, Ward Connerly, Bill Cosby, etc.

They also share the willful ignorance and historical blindness of their RW colleagues. The vast majority of discriminatory acts will not be physical. To make the often-extreme physical acts of the '60's Civil Rights Era the only measure of discrimination is both ignorant and short-sighted--but great to cater to your fellow bigots.

Pick your company wisely, since you'll likely be judged by the company you keep. If the rabid racist right agrees with you--especially if you aren't white, you're doing something wrong.

this guy can't understand that he is just as much a bigot as the people that dragged his mother off the restaurant stools.

edit to add:

1) Here in Maryland, on a road near me, there are two huge Christian mega-churches, separated only by another religious building, the Islamic Center of Maryland. No problems, of any kind.

2) The Washington post did a story that pointed out that Muslims have been worshiping at a chapel at the 9/11 site at the Pentagon for years.

Sorry. You guys know that I do try to be a bit more elegant in my speech most times, but facts is facts. This man is a disgrace. His stepmother would probably kick him in the nads if she knew he was invoking her in an effort to deny these people the right to practice their religion in their *gasp* own hometown!!
The horror! :wow: :eyes:

And slightly off topic -- Brew, you're listing Bill Cosby as a lawn jockey?>? Now, I know the man has been jockey-ISH in the past but for real?? You're going full fledged "Bill is a lawn jockey?" I respect your opinion and you're usually right on the money with calling them out but that one struck me by surprise. Bill has done some good things for the community. Sometimes I wonder if he lost it after his son was murdered because he has definitely said some things in the last few years that have made me do the serious :wtf:

As said above, if you find the rabid racist RW agreeing with you, you're doing something wrong.

His rants were such that Michael Eric Dyson felt compelled to write a book to counter his arguments entitled Is Bill Cosby Right: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?

For Cosby to recycle the lies and stereotypes about black people, esp. poor black people, too often used by the rabid RW, is unconscionable. People working 2 and 3 jobs aren't buying $200 Nike shoes. Using the hammer of "personal responsibility" to bash poor black people without addressing the systemic and institutional barriers they face is intellectually disingenuous, in addition to providing the rabid RW (and some on the political left) cover, i.e., the black guy said it, so it's okay!

He has an EARNED Ph.D, so he should be to do his research, and should be held to a higher standard. Problems black people face didn't start with the advent of gangsta rap. Not to mention his amnesia of US history, esp. regarding race--another trait of the rabid RW.

The loss of his son may explain some things, but explanation is not agreement, nor is it excuse. Camille Cosby's famous letter in 1998 in USA Today, talked about how America taught their son's murderer the bigotry and hate that caused him to kill--and the same pundits and talking heads that are praising Cosby were VERY upset about that letter. Talk about a double standard.

Faulkner was right--the past isn't even past.

It's not a big step from jockey-ish to lawn jockey. After all, if it quacks like a duck...

I've made the same argument before. I think it was Colin Powell that made some comment about "yes racism exists and is horrible but black people need to stop perpetuating negative stereotypes" as though that's the only reason or even a TOP reason that so many blacks are having trouble succeeding.

Btw, you piqued my curiosity with your comment about Camille Cosby's letter so I went and looked for it. I'd never read it before or even knew about it. All I could find was excerpts - http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/191.html

but some of the responses to her letter are downright disgusting - http://www.salon.com/col/horo/1998/07/nc_13horo2.html

found one in Kevin Fisher...damn fool.