After suffering some of the worst persecution in modern history, Iraqi Christians who resettled in and around the Detroit, Michigan area breathed a sigh of relief when the local planning commission voted 9-0 to reject the building a huge mosque in the middle of their neighborhood.
The Detroit Free Press (DFP) is reporting on the contentious debate that has seized both the Muslim and Christian community in Sterling Heights, Michigan since the American Islamic Community Center announced plans to build a $4 million dollar mosque right across the street from several Iraqi Christian stores and centers. Many of the locals in this heavily Catholic area were against the idea and joined with their Middle Eastern Christian friends to oppose the idea by staging protests and posting signs on the proposed site that read, “We don’t want it” and “Build it elsewhere”.
Sterling Heights has become a center for a growing Iraqi-American Christian population who are known as Chaldeans, Assyrians, or Syriacs, some of whom fled persecution by Islamic extremists in their native countries. They worried that the building of the mosque would attract extremist mullahs and result in bringing the same deadly violence into their new home near metro Detroit.
But local Muslims say they are being stereotyped and believe the opposition is rooted in prejudice against Islam. As the DFP reports, they have seen plans to build mosques shot down quite often in recent years in other locations throughout metro Detroit.
The matter came to a head the other night when city planners finally took a vote on the matter which resulted in a unanimous rejection of the mosque-building plans.
At the announcement, the crowd that had gathered outside the building burst into cheers and chanted “God Bless America!”
City Planner Donald Mende said he voted against the mosque because he felt the building was too tall for the location and it just wasn’t suited for such a residential area.
Jaafar Chehab, a board member of the proposed American Islamic Community Center, was not pleased with the outcome. “Not allowing this mosque to be built is a violation of my Constitutional rights…Denying me a house of worship in the place I live is unacceptable…We have the right to build a mosque.” At dur experiment website you can view more blogs related to home improvement.
The locals disagreed.
Julia Ar commented on the DFP website: “ . . . The first amendment allows everyone to practice or not practice their chosen religion anywhere at any time but doesn’t guarantee a house of worship to be built anywhere the religious followers choose.”
A commenter named “Vyx” also weighed in: “I live in this area. This is a VERY Catholic region- NOT Dearborn. Not Muslim. The area that they were planning for the mosque is already a traffic nightmare – it would have been hellish with any large religious facility. Thank God the city planners listened to the people.”
David Miller from Northern Michigan University seemed to question why anyone would even wonder why the local Iraqi Christian population would oppose such a plan. “Of course the Chaldeans would be against it – they suffered near complete genocide at the hands of Muslims.”
At least for the time being, this beleaguered population will continue to live in peace.
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