“There comes a time when you have to say, ‘We can’t do this anymore,’ ” said Jaweed Ansari, a Brentwood physician and spokesman for the Islamic Center of Williamson County.
Every year, hundreds of new houses of worship are proposed around the United States. A growing number face resistance from neighbors and government officials who see places of worship as a nuisance because they don’t pay taxes, often ask for special exceptions to zoning rules and cause traffic congestion. But religious liberty advocates say these objections can trample the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
Ansari admits the mosque plan wasn’t perfect. Most of the 14 acres is on a flood plain, a problem exacerbated by Middle Tennessee’s recent storms. Only about 4 acres was needed for the mosque, so organizers didn’t see that as a problem. They also felt the site, which borders a park and has neighbors only on one side, would be fairly unobtrusive.
“We realized going into this that nobody wants anything in their backyard, regardless of whether it is a church or a Walmart or whatever,” he said.
I was speaking with my best friend in Toronto, where I grew up, and we were discussing immigration and how little assimilation there is now in Canada. Incidentally, we were both children of immigrants. There was a program on TVOntario in 1970 entitled Castle Zaremba, which was about a boarding-house in Toronto and how the residents, who were all immigrants, learned to assimilate. It starred Jan Rubles and the program was meant to help immigrants assimilate. Well, assimilation has gone the way of the Prayer Book Anglican and the Dodo Bird. Now there is to be erected in Toronto a Three Hundred Million Dollar Islamic Cultural Museum. You’ve come a long way Canada… just the wrong way.
“Unobtrusive” is the last thing a mosque would be in this location–near the epicenter of the city’s most-used park filled with soccer fields and biking and walking paths. But, I don’t know why that should matter since a steeple probably wouldn’t raise a red flag in this community where there are churches on most major street corners. Regardless, this is a tough community to build in. The zoning and construction ordinances are strict. The story quotes someone who worried that the presence of a lawyer telegraphed hostile intent on the part of the mosque-seekers. Come on, nobody brings a serious proposal to a city commission around Brentwood without a lawyer. Having said that, don’t you have to wonder–I’m sorry don’t you just have to wonder–when a mosque spokesman says they don’t have any ties to extremism. Nothing up your sleeve, eh? And you’ve done a thorough investigation? Wow. On the other hand, my feeling is–in terms of corrupting the community–things could be worse. It could have been a proposal for a bank.