A smaller controversy is occurring in Temecula, about 60 miles north of San
Diego, involving a typical stew of religion, politics and anti-immigrant
sentiment. A Muslim community has been there for about 12 years and expanded
to 150 families who have outgrown their makeshift worship space in a
warehouse, said Mahmoud Harmoush, the imam, a lecturer at California State
University, San Bernardino. The group wants to build a 25,000-square-foot
center, with space for classrooms and a playground, on a lot it bought in
2000.

Mr. Harmoush said the Muslim families had contributed to the local food
bank, sent truckloads of supplies to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina,
and participated in music nights and Thanksgiving events with the local
interfaith council.

"We do all these activities and nobody notices," he said.
"Now that we have
to build our center, everybody jumps to make it an issue."

Recently, a small group of activists became alarmed about the mosque. Diana
Serafin, a grandmother who lost her job in tech support this year, said she
reached out to others she knew from attending Tea Party events and
anti-immigration rallies. She said they read books by critics of Islam,
including former Muslims like Walid Shoebat, Wafa Sultan and Manoucher Bakh.
She also attended a meeting of the local chapter of ACT! for America, a
Florida-based group that says its purpose is to defend Western civilization
against Islam.

"As a mother and a grandmother, I worry," Ms. Serafin said.
"I learned that
in 20 years with the rate of the birth population, we will be overtaken by
Islam, and their goal is to get people in Congress and the Supreme Court to
see that Shariah is implemented. My children and grandchildren will have to
live under that."

"I do believe everybody has a right to freedom of religion," she
said. "But
Islam is not about a religion. It's a political government, and it's 100
percent against our Constitution."

Ms. Serafin was among an estimated 20 to 30 people who turned out to protest
the mosque, including some who intentionally took dogs to offend those
Muslims who consider dogs to be ritually unclean. But they were outnumbered
by at least 75 supporters. The City of Temecula recently postponed a hearing
on whether to grant the mosque a permit.

Larry Slusser, a Mormon and the secretary of the Interfaith Council of
Murietta and Temecula, went to the protest to support the Muslim group. "I
know them," he said. "They're good people. They have no ill intent. They're
good Americans. They are leaders in their professions."

Of the protesters, he said, "they have fear because they don't know them."

Religious freedom is also at stake, Mr. Slusser said, adding, "They're
Americans, they deserve to have a place to worship just like everybody
else."

There are about 1,900 mosques in the United States, which run the gamut from
makeshift prayer rooms in storefronts and houses to large buildings with
adjoining community centers, according to a preliminary survey by Mr. Bagby,
who conducted a mosque study 10 years ago and is now undertaking another.

A two-year study by a group of academics on American Muslims and terrorism
concluded that contemporary mosques are actually a deterrent to the spread
of militant Islam and terrorism. The study was conducted by professors with
Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy and the University of North Carolina.
It disclosed that many mosque leaders had put significant effort into
countering extremism by building youth programs, sponsoring antiviolence
forums and scrutinizing teachers and texts.

Radicalization of alienated Muslim youths is a real threat, Mr. Bagby said.
"But the youth we worry about," he said, "are not the youth
that come to the
mosque."

In central Tennessee, the mosque in Murfreesboro is the third one in the
last year to encounter resistance. It became a political issue when
Republican candidates for governor and Congress declared their opposition.
(They were defeated in primary elections on Thursday.)

A group called Former Muslims United put up a billboard saying "Stop the
Murfreesboro Mosque." The group's president is Nonie Darwish, also the
founder of Arabs for Israel, who spoke against Islam in Murfreesboro at a
fund-raising dinner for Christians United for Israel, an evangelical
organization led by the Rev. John Hagee.

"A mosque is not just a place for worship," Ms. Darwish said in an
interview. "It's a place where war is started, where commandments to do
jihad start, where incitements against non-Muslims occur. It's a place where
ammunition was stored."

Camie Ayash, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, lamented
that people were listening to what she called "total disinformation" on
Islam.

She said her group was stunned when what began as one person raising zoning
questions about the new mosque evolved into mass protests with marchers
waving signs about Shariah.

"A lot of Muslims came to the U.S. because they respect the Constitution,"
she said. "There's no conflict with the U.S. Constitution in Shariah law. If
there were, Muslims wouldn't be living here."

In Wisconsin, the conflict over the mosque was settled when the Town
Executive Council voted unanimously to give the Islamic Society of Sheboygan
a permit to use the former health food store as a prayer space.

Dr. Mansoor Mirza, the physician who owns the property, said he was trying
to take the long view of the controversy.

"Every new group coming to this country -- Jews, Catholics, Irish, Germans,
Japanese -- has gone through this," Dr. Mirza said. "Now I think it's our
turn to pay the price, and eventually we will be coming out of this, too."



Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files.  We Use Hermes II


--- Hermes Web Tosser 1.1