Kennesaw Allows Awaited Mosque
“This is not life and death. We’ve been living in this neighborhood for 15 years. Have you ever seen us getting into trouble? No,” Kashif Islam, the brother of Kennesaw resident Mufti Islam who made the request, told MDJ Online.
Mayor Mark Mathews attended Monday meeting which saw a unanimous 5-0 vote to allow the new prayer center, OnIslam.net reported.
Mathews said Monday’s vote will allow the mosque to operate in the retail center without stipulations for 24 months.
“It was a fairly unusual experience for us, but I think we’ve taken action,” Mathews said.
Monday’s vote reversed an earlier vote in December in which the mosque was rejected by 4-1 vote.
The mosque will be the first in Kennesaw, a city of 30,000 residents about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta.
Councilwoman Cris Eaton-Welsh, the sole vote in favor of the permit at that meeting, said Monday she was “glad we can move forward and focus on all the great things happening in Kennesaw.”
As the voting process went on, some 20 protesters stood outside City Hall, holding signs with the words “Ban Islam” and “No Mosque” and waving American flags.
Residents of Kennesaw apologized for protesters actions.
“It broke my heart to see them treated this way,” Holly Lacour, a Kennesaw resident, said.
“I identify as an atheist, but I support all rights to religious freedom. My neighborhood is very diverse, and that’s how I want my city to be.”
Dallas resident Danielle Longamore supports the mosque and said she thinks the protesters represent a minority.
“I don’t think that group of people really represents Kennesaw as a whole because of their unwillingness to talk and their stubbornness,” Longamore said.
Welcomed
Welcoming the council’s decision, Khalid El-Amin, a supporter of the mosque, said he wasn’t bothered by the protesters.
“They have the same right to protest as we do. And, as long as the right people say ‘yes,’” El-Amin said, nodding toward the council inside City Hall, “all of this doesn’t matter.”
Kamaral Hosein, a supporter of the mosque and a Muslim, said he was proud of the council’s decision to change the vote.
“This is a victory not only for the mosque and Muslims, but for the whole community as a whole,” Hosein said.
All across the US, home to 7-8 million Muslims, mosques have been facing fierce opposition recently.
At least 18 mosque projects — from Mississippi to Wisconsin — have found foes who battle to stop them from seeing light citing different pretexts, including traffic concerns and fear of terrorism.
Even more, some mosques were vandalized including a 2011 Wichita mosque arson case for which a $5,000 reward is being offered.
In multicultural New York, a proposed mosque near Ground Zero site has snowballed into a national public and political debate, with opponents arguing that the Muslim building would be an insult to the memory of the 9/11 victims.
Advocates, however, say that the mosque would send a message of tolerance in 9/11-post America
