Opponents of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro filed a motion in federal court Monday claiming that U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell accepted "false allegations" in affirming that the controversial mosque can continue its opening process.

Attorney Joe Brandon, who has represented mosque opponents in the past, said he was vexed that federal courts intervened in a local case.

Brandon said the only way to properly conclude the dispute is to provide the public with adequate notice about the mosque, making mosque advocates restart the approval process.

The motion also questioned whether Islam qualified as a legitimate religion.

Brandon requested a hearing for the injunction sought.

The Tennessean, 30 July 2012

View the Original article

First we would like to start by asking, how long will more than 1.5 billion Muslim around the world and not only in Tennessee or the United States suffer from irrational fear and hate?

Then we would like to answer the question about why is a huge Muslim compound going up where there are very few Muslims? Especially that in Spencer’s opinion the population of Muslims in America didn’t suddenly Spike and that they are not even close.

How is it that Spencer is so sure that there are very few Muslims in the area of the new Mosque specially that the United States Census Bureau didn’t use to ask about religious believes when conducting surveys and no one used to be sure or even know exactly how many persons of any religion or faith live in America or in any specific state, until recently the Census Bureau felt that there is a growing need to ask about religious believes in the surveys.

Do you know from where did this need come from? It is the stunning increase and an outstanding rate of growth of Muslims in America!

According to the latest U.S. Religion Census which is called 2010 report, the fastest growing religion in America is Islam.  The data for the census was compiled by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.

From year 2000 to year 2010, the census found that the number of Muslims living inside the United States increased from 1 million to 2.6 million. This is an increase of 66.7 percent.

This reminds us of the statement of President Barack Obama when he once said that “we are no longer a Christian nation”.

Even if the number of Muslims in Tennessee remains unclear, everyone agrees that it’s rising, and fast. Since Islam is growing rapidly this leads to the need of building new mosques for worship.

Based on the previous can you still say that Muslims are Very Few in this specific region?

Now regarding the size of the mosque or the huge compound as Spencer believes:

A professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky, Ihsan Bagby, said once in one of his statements that all over the United States mega mosques are seen or being constructed. And these mega-mosques are not going unused.  In some areas of the country, Islamic communities are experiencing absolutely explosive growth.

Moreover, we would like to correct the misleading hidden messages given by Spencer concerning the following statement made by the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro:

‘’ The main focus is to insure that the Mosque strong holds on our community and to expand beyond religious teachings…we must work hard so that the ICM have a prominent role in the development and progression of not only of Murfreesboro but of Middle Tennessee’’

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro here meant when saying ‘’expand beyond religious teaching’’ his aim to create a full-service prayer center and not only a mosque, but also outdoor sports fields, pavilions and playgrounds, educational facilities, a multi-purpose facility, a gym and a cemetery.

And the goal, according to the center’s website, is “to improve the practice, knowledge and understanding of Islam among all people and elevate the image of Islam” by providing “correct information from accredited sources about Islam.”

So the Islamic Center totally explained what is meant by expanding beyond religious teaching and didn’t leave any doubts about his intentions in order for Spencer to start inducing the readers to start reaching their own conclusions.

View the Original article

Concerned that prejudice rather than genuine zoning issues might be at work, the U.S. Department of Justice has opened 28 cases nationwide involving local denials of mosque construction applications since 2000, according to a department official.

While Norwalk's recent rejection of a proposed mosque on Fillow Street is not among them, the DOJ's investigations elsewhere are real. Of the 28 cases, 11 have resulted in full investigations and four remain open.

"Of the 11 investigations opened since 2000, two resulted in the filing of DOJ lawsuits that were resolved by consent decrees, three resulted in the local government voluntarily permitting the mosque, one led to a settlement of a privately filed lawsuit, four are currently pending, and in one case we determined that further action by the department was not warranted," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The department is now reviewing a case in West Haven to determine if an investigation is warranted, the official said.

There is no evidence to suggest the department is investigating the recent decision by the Norwalk Zoning Commission to reject Al-Madany Islamic Center of Norwalk's plan for a mosque/multi-purpose hall at 127 Fillow St.

The commission voted 4-3 last Wednesday night to deny the special permit needed to construct the 27,000-square-foot structure in a residential zone. Mayor Richard A. Moccia on Thursday said the decision was well-thought out and had nothing to do with religion. "It had to do with density, size and traffic," Moccia said.

The Hour, 10 June 2012

View the Original article

Syed Farhaj Hassan (centre) at press conferenceOne of the Obama administration's go-to civil rights groups in its efforts to build relationships with American Muslims is suing the New York Police Department over its surveillance programs, some of which were paid for with federal money.

Eight Muslims filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in New Jersey to force the NYPD to end its surveillance and other intelligence-gathering practices targeting Muslims in the years after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The lawsuit alleged that the NYPD's activities were unconstitutional because they focused on people's religion, national origin and race.

It is the first lawsuit to directly challenge the NYPD's surveillance programs that targeted entire Muslim neighborhoods, chronicling the daily life of where people ate, prayed and got their hair cut. The surveillance was the subject of series of stories by The Associated Press that revealed the NYPD intelligence division infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds.

The Muslims suing the NYPD are represented by Muslim Advocates, a California-based civil rights group that meets regularly with members of the Obama administration.

One of the lawsuit's plaintiffs stopped attending one New Jersey mosque after learning it was listed in an NYPD file. The mosque, like and dozens of others along the East Coast and listed in NYPD files, was not linked to terrorism either publicly or in the confidential police documents.

Syed Farhaj Hassan, a specialist in the U.S. Army Reserves, said he worried that if his name, or the name of one of his mosques, turned up in a police intelligence dossier, it could jeopardize his military security clearance or job prospects.

"Guilt by association is a career stopper, it's a show stopper, it's an ender," he said. "What happens when that name comes up when you're looking for a job?"

Associated Press, 6 June 2012

View the Original article