From Creeping Sharia:
Illinois: Muslims got mosque in residential neighborhood, now want gigantic minaret
Posted on March 15, 2012 by creeping
This is how they operate. They bend and break zoning laws and get the pro-sharia DOJ to threaten lawsuits if local citizens simply try to enforce long-standing zoning laws.
In this case, the Muslims even lied agreed not to have a huge minaret but now that they got their mosque in the residential neighborhood they are reneging and want their huge symbol of conquest. Nice neighbors. Next they’ll be blaring the call to prayer five times a day. Residents will pay the price for the politically correct county officials.
“The minarets are our bayonets; the domes are our helmets. Mosques are our barracks, the believers are soldiers. This holy army guards my religion. Almighty, Our journey is our destiny, the end is martyrdom.” ~ Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan
The DuPage County Board today voted 14-4 to reject a proposal to allow a minaret and a dome on a planned mosque near Willowbrook.
Last March, the Muslim Educational Cultural Center of America (MECCA) won approval for a 47,000-square-foot mosque and cultural center to be built on a 4.7-acre parcel at 16W560 91st Street in unincorporated DuPage County. However, board members at that time voted down plans for a 69-foot dome and a 79-foot minaret.
MECCA officials subsequently returned to DuPage officials, seeking a lower dome that would peak 50 feet off the ground, along with a shorter minaret that would top off no higher than 60 feet off the ground. The group’s lawyer argued that MECCA could not realistically construct a dome and minaret that would be functional and true to religious custom while sticking to the county’s current height cap of 36 feet.
Today, residents of the nearby Timberlake Estates neighborhood noted that MECCA’s project lacks the greater setbacks that are required for variations to houses of worship that are taller than 36 feet.
“You have created a law to protect places of assembly and sensitive residential areas (that) clearly states the height of a building can be increased if setbacks are increased,” neighbor Pete Spencer told the board. “This…does not conform and is not eligible for this relief.”
Representatives from MECCA, however, complained that neighbors who objected to the mosque proposal last year were using the debate on the dome and minaret to continue their opposition to the mosque as a whole. MECCA planning consultant Joe Abel, who also is the retired director of the county’s development department, insisted that the likelihood of neighbors being able to see the dome and minaret was low.
“All these people stood up, and tell me one who said they have opposition to the dome and minaret themselves,” Abel said. “My professional opinion is you will not see the dome and the minaret because of the landscaping buffer. No one said, ‘oh, we don’t want to look at that obnoxious structure.’ You didn’t hear that this morning. We presented testimony showing that nobody is going to be able to see this from their decks.”
And MECCA board member Hani Atassi called the minaret and the dome “symbols of our religion,” and pointed out that other area religious institutions exceed the height limit.
“All you have to do is drive around DuPage County and see how many religious institutions have their symbols over 36 feet,” he said. “We just want to be treated like any other religious institution.”
Most board members were not swayed.
“I would think…people would really want to get along with their neighbors,” said board member Donald Puchalski, R-Addison. “They’re not opposing what (MECCA is) trying to do, they’re opposing the variation. My understanding is, (MECCA) didn’t meet the setback.”
Board member Michael Ledonne, R-Lombard, predicted that MECCA would make a great neighbor, but that the heights of the proposed dome and minaret would not meet the spirit of the county’s zoning laws.
“To me, it’s all about balance,” Ledonne said. “They do have the ability to build a dome, (and) they do have the ability to build a minaret, they just can’t build it as high as they want to. In my opinion, that’s not justification for going against our current zoning laws.”
That’s why we call it the “zoning jihad.”
No comments:
Post a Comment