Large Multi-Million Dollar Mosque Causes Unease In Temecula, California

From Creeping Sharia:

Large multi-million dollar mosque causes unease in Temecula, California (video)


Posted on July 19, 2010 by creeping

Heated debate over the nature of Islam is overshadowing plans to build a mosque in northeast Temecula.



Critics, including the pastor of a church next to the mosque site, say the worship center is a bad fit for the area. They’re also concerned with what they describe as Islam’s extreme agenda of expansion.



The Islamic Center of Temecula Valley’s imam, or prayer leader, said his group is peaceful and only seeks more room to serve its members. And the civil rights manager for a Muslim-American advocacy group [terror-linked CAIR] said the mosque’s critics are ignorant, if not bigoted.



The proposal to build a 24,950-square-foot mosque on a 4-acre site on Nicolas Road is tentatively scheduled to come before the Temecula Planning Commission on Aug. 18.







According to its website, the center started in February 1998 with five families praying in each other’s houses during Ramadan, a holy month in the Muslim calendar.



Today the center serves between 150 and 200 families, Harmoush said.



The mosque would be built next to Calvary Baptist Church. Pastor Bill Rench worries the mosque is too large for the site.



But he said he’s particularly concerned about what he described as “the whole issue of Islam and what it stands for.”



“It’s certainly a religion that is not only different but contrary to Christianity,” he said.



“Where it’s dominant, religious freedom goes out the window … the message of Islam is the spread of Islam by whatever means necessary.”



Putting the mosque next to Calvary is “almost like trying to put oil and water together,” Rench added.



Grace Presbyterian Church is next to Calvary. Scott Dienhart, chairman of the finance committee at Grace, said the church’s board of elders has not met to discuss a position on the mosque.



Bob Kowell, president of the Murrieta Temecula Republican Assembly, said while he doesn’t have a problem with the mosque, “We’re for the free expression of all religions that don’t call for my death or your death or the suppression of women.”



The mosque needs to reject Osama bin Laden and holy war against non-Muslims, Kowell said.



“If they do not reject these things, then they’re a part of it,” he said.



An online group called Concerned Community Citizens is circulating a petition about the mosque. The petition states the mosque will lead to traffic congestion, noise pollution and other environmental problems.