Battling Community Mosques Betrays American Values

From AIFD:

Battling community mosques betrays American values


Muslim leaders propose a new mosque. The surrounding community objects, saying it's the wrong place and time.



Sound familiar? It's not New York.



It's Scottsdale in 2001. Our story is worth remembering because extraordinary events gave us much of which to be proud. And because one of the key players continues to stand up for religious freedom and against extremism.



Northeast Valley Muslims, weary of long drives to the nearest mosque, drew plans for a worship center at Via Linda and 122nd Street and took them to the Development Review Board.



Neighbors objected. They said they opposed any religious facility on land zoned residential. They wanted only custom homes. A 16,000-square-foot facility was too large for the 3.5 acres, they said.



All familiar arguments in Scottsdale. But this was November 2001; the debate was framed by images of the Twin Towers falling.



"There are times when I wanted to do something but didn't because the timing wasn't right," review board member Anne Gale said. "Your mosque may be victim of the same thing - timing. I wonder if, at this time, it would be better just to sideline this project."



It was a polite way of expressing sentiments heard more recently in Sheboygan, Wis., Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Temecula, Calif., where plans for mosques were fought with vandalism and insults.



But then the extraordinary happened.



The pastors of three nearby Christian churches announced an interfaith service in support of the mosque. One week before Christmas, about 400 people showed up.



A rabbi read the Torah in Hebrew. The imam read from the Quran in Arabic. A priest read the Bible in English. "It was quite a night to remember. I was very proud of it," said the Rev. Robert John Voss, then pastor of St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church.



A month later, the development board approved the project.



"We built relations that are still strong to this day," said M. Zuhdi Jasser, one of the leaders in building the mosque. Overflow crowds for Eid al Fitr last week parked at St. Bernard, for instance.



Jasser has been active since then. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the physician founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy to give moderate Muslims a voice. He opposes the proposed Cordoba Center in New York, writing in the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal that it is a provocation in an area where people should be Americans first.



That argument does not apply to other new mosques. Researchers at Duke and the University of North Carolina found that contemporary mosques deter the spread of militant Islam through youth programs, anti-violence forums and by scrutinizing teachers.



Jasser believes that research, based on experience. Protests greeted his parents' effort to build a small mosque in Wisconsin shortly after the Iran hostage crisis. It ultimately was built with the support of Jewish and Catholic leaders, which made the First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom ring true for him.



He went on to become a Navy officer and nuclear cardiologist.



"I love my faith. I want my kids to be strong Muslims," Jasser said. "If that small town in Wisconsin had prevented my parents from building a mosque, who knows what effect that would have had on me."



That's what protesters in Sheboygan, Murfreesboro and Temecula don't get. We win by supporting American values that can't be enjoyed elsewhere. The freedom to worship belongs at the top of the list.



Robert Leger is opinions editor of the Scottsdale Republic and Phoenix Republic, and an assistant editorial page editor of the Arizona Republic. He writes about politics and life in Phoenix, Scottsdale and the rest of the Northeast Valley.



Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 01:53 PM