It was virtually standing room only at the Rutherford County Courthouse Thursday as residents expressed their anger over approval of a Muslim community center.
Anger over what?
At the heart of concerns expressed Thursday is the Regional Planning Commission’s approval of a 52,000-square-foot Mosque in a residential area off Veals Rd. The plan was approved under “use by right” provisions that allow all religious groups to circumvent public zoning hearings by simply submitting plans for approval.
You can see the conundrum the commission caused here by literally applying the public hearing exemption to all religious groups, instead of just to Christian churches, as they were supposed to.
But process complaints were a secondary issue to most attendees–they had bigger concerns:
[M]ost who spoke focused more on the threat they feel the Islamic faith presents to the community.
And they weren’t shy in saying so:
“Will radical ideas and violence be brought to our doorstep?” resident Donald Todd asked. “We would not want white supremacists or Nazis here either.”
I’m not so sure about that.
Resident Karen Harold warned that Hitler came to power when folks turned a “deaf eye” and feared Muslims might try to kill her for speaking out.
“I’m not against any kind of religions,” Harold said. “Hindus, they are not trying to kill us. But everybody knows who is trying to kill us, and it’s like we can’t say it, and they (are) a scary thing.”
We must keep our deaf eye focused on the threats.
“I think everybody realizes we are in a war with somebody,” resident Pete Doughty said. “We can’t identify all these people at this point, but we’re in a war.”
And someday we will defeat that somebody.
Resident Jackie Archer agreed and expressed concerns over America’s willingness to tolerate other religions.
“I think the problem is we are novices at this struggle whereas the people we oppose are veterans,” Archer said. “They see our big open hearts and arms in our American open society as a loop hole, and they jump right in before we know what’s happened.”
Tolerance is a problem; we should get back to the intolerance that our founding fathers intended:
Resident Roy Grady expressed concerns over the “motivation and potential threat to our Christian world” he feels community Muslims present. “Our country is under siege, ladies and gentlemen, because it was founded on the belief that Jesus Christ is our lord and king, the virgin born son of God and risen savior, the living God.”
Thanks to the Internets, I frequently engage in discussions with people from all over. Stereotypes being what they are, I periodically get accused by outsiders of living in a backward region.
“It’s not so bad,” I sometimes argue, defending my home turf. “We’re really not all that different than the rest of America.”
But when I read articles like this, I wonder: “Why bother?”