No mosques in our neighborhood please

A Muslim group wants to build a mosque in rural Maryland and local residents are giving them lots of assistance. I mean, resistance.

WALKERSVILLE, Md. -- A Muslim group's plan to build a mosque and convention site on a 224-acre farm has met with resistance from many residents of this rural, overwhelmingly Christian town who fear its tranquility and security may be jeopardized.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA insists it will be a friendly neighbor, but its proposal -- including an annual national gathering of thousands of Ahmadis -- could be blocked by a measure under consideration by the town commissioners.

''Muslims are a whole different culture from us,'' said the mayor, Ralph Whitmore, taking a break at his livestock feed store. ''The situation with the Muslims is a touchy worldwide situation, so people are antsy over that.'' [Link]

Oh no, they're a whole different culture. We'd rather be surrounded by people of the same culture, people who worship the same God, wear the same clothes and drive the same pickup trucks.

Muqtedar Khan, a political science professor at the University of Delaware, said the blunt opposition voiced by some Walkersville citizens is reminiscent of the persecution Ahmadis have endured in Pakistan. There, they are forbidden to practice their religion because they believe there was a prophet after Muhammad -- Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in 1908.

''It is quite ironic,'' Khan said, that the Ahmadis -- allowed to worship freely in the United States -- ''are suffering a backlash because of their association with Islam.''

But Syed Ahmad, a federal economist who is managing the Walkersville project for the group, said the persecution in Pakistan is far worse.

''Here, people are civilized and they get up and they talk and they oppose you,'' Ahmad said, ''but they're not going to kill you.'' [Link]

They're good people, here. Even when they attack our mosques, they do it nicely. They don't kill anyone.

Ahmad acknowledged that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the U.S. campaign against terrorism have made residents wary.

''They hear 'Muslims,' and they don't know anything beyond that,'' he said. ''To me, it's natural until they get a chance to ask questions what our beliefs are -- and then they realize these are good people.''

Some residents aren't convinced. When the Ahmadis visited Kambra Minor, a clerk at the Walkersville Market, ''I told them, you have to understand -- there's a certain connotation to a Muslim group, especially in a blue-collar area like this,'' Minor said. [Link]

We're blue-collar workers. When we hear the word 'lunch,' we think '7/11.'  When we hear the word 'Muslim,' we think '9/11.' We can't help ourselves.

Resident David Sample testified during a hearing last month that he is an intelligence officer whose office at the Pentagon, about 40 miles away, was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

''I just stress to the board and the community that we pay attention to what's going on, what the motive is, who the people are,'' he said. [Link]

We need to keep an eye on them. They're calling it a mosque and convention center, but what if it's really a flight school? What if they're hiding a plane in there? I heard about this Nigerian man who built a helicopter from old car parts, so anything is possible.

Comments

[Novathecat]

I live in the same county as Walkersville. The people in this area are BANANA's (Build Absolutely Nothing at All Nowhere Anytime). They would also oppose a group of Lutharins from Minnesota. The Muslim angle accounts for a little bit of the resistance, most of it is rabid hatred of development.