Wisconsin: Oshkosh Mosque Opposition The Latest In State's History

From AIFD:

The following column by Cheryl Anderson appears in today's Appleton Post-Crescent. It can be found at this link.




Oshkosh mosque opposition the latest in state's history

by Cheryl Anderson



November 20, 2010



The Oshkosh City Council on Nov. 9 approved the location of a mosque, despite objections from neighbors, at the former Seefeld Funeral Home on Eagle Street. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Oshkosh Chapter had received unanimous approval the week before for a continued-use permit, which will allow them to convert the building into a mosque and community center.



Several neighbors had signed a petition opposing the proposed use of the property, saying it was not appropriate for a residential neighbor.



It's not the only proposed mosque that has faced opposition.



In 1981, a group of Muslim families decided to build and fund a modest, two-room house in the Town of Menasha to serve as a mosque, the first in northeastern Wisconsin.



Zuhdi Jasser remembers it well.



"I was in ninth grade at the time and just starting at Neenah High. And it was pretty controversial," said Jassar, a 1985 NHS graduate and president and founder of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy.



But the timing of the project aligned with the first American victory Jan. 20, 1981, in the war on terror.



"All (those opposed to the mosque) had to connect it to was the hostage crisis," Jasser said.



And earlier this year, when Sheboygan County received a proposal to open a mosque in Oostburg, discussions drew large crowds, with some saying the constitutional guarantee of freedom of worship dictated approval while others said the mosque could attract Islamic fundamentalists and even terrorists to the area. Pastors in Oostburg also began a campaign against the project.



Sheboygan's story was featured in a Time magazine article titled "Islamophobia: Does America Have a Muslim Problem?"



In May, the Wilson Town Board unanimously approved a conditional-use permit to allow the newly formed Muslim Society of Sheboygan to convert a former health food store on two-lane Sauk Trail Road into a house of worship.



A similar debate also took place in Green Bay earlier this year when city officials received a proposal to open a mosque in a former sporting goods store. Neighbors and others in the community voiced concerns about Muslim extremism and possible violence or other disruptions in the neighborhood.



The city council voted 9-3 in August to permit the mosque inside the former Bob's Bait and Tackle Shop on Velp Avenue, and no reports of trouble have been registered.



Concern over unknown



When a group of nine families spearheaded the drive in 2004 to open the Islamic Center of Wisconsin as an alternate place of worship, many of the founders refused to talk about the new mosque, fearing retaliation.



Mohamed Hassan Abdelazim, imam of the Appleton-based center, was quoted as saying: "We want this place to be a place of worship, no politics. I feel strongly that all people associate Islam with is the Middle East. And what you don't understand, you fear."



While Islamophobia does exist as evidenced by Florida pastor Terry Jones' on-and-off-again plan to hold an "International Burn the Koran Day" on the nine-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, fear of the unknown is not new, said Rabbi Kenneth Katz of Moses Montefiore Synagogue, Appleton.



In May 1933, the Nazis decreed any book "which acts subversively on our future or strikes at the root of German thought, the German home and the driving forces of our people…" was to be burned. That included Jewish Torahs.



"It's tough to be a Muslim in America right now if you just want to get along," Katz said. "We Jews know better than anyone else."



Like Jasser, Mohammad Rashid, president of the Fox Valley Islamic Society, also remembers the beginnings of the Neenah mosque. He had moved to the area in 1979 from Bangladesh.



Because there wasn't a mosque, various churches freely offered space so families could gather for mandatory Friday prayer called juma and for holidays such as Eid, the Muslim holiday that took place Friday and marked the end of Ramadan.



"It compensated somewhat to do the important events that we needed to do as a community," he said, adding that when the mosque opened in 1981, it was an exciting time for area Muslims who, despite protests, were supported by local clergy.



Cheryl Anderson: 920-993-1000 ext. 249, or canderson@postcrescent.com. The Green Bay Press Gazette contributed to this report.







Read more: http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20101120/APC04/11200346/Cheryl-Anderson-column-Oshkosh-mosque-opposition-the-latest-in-state-s-history#ixzz15rScEb4E