Judge Refuses To Stop Construction Of Tenn. Mosque (Islamic Center of Murfreesboro)

[Turborama]

Source: AP Via NPR

A judge refused Wednesday to stop construction of a proposed mosque in Tennessee that was opposed by some local residents who tried to argue that there was a conspiracy by Muslims to impose extremist law on the United States.

Opponents filed a lawsuit claiming that Rutherford County planning officials violated Tennessee's open meetings law when they approved the site plan for an Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville.

Rutherford County Chancellor Robert Corlew ruled after closing arguments that he could not find that the "county acted illegally, arbitrarily or capriciously" in approving the plan. But much of the questioning from plaintiffs' attorney Joe Brandon Jr. during seven days of testimony since late September was about whether Islam qualified as a religion. He pushed his theory that American Muslims want to replace the Constitution with extremist Islamic law.

=snip=

Mosque leaders want to expand their facilities to accommodate a growing congregation and currently the proposed site is being prepared but no construction has started. Federal investigators are looking into a dump truck that was set on fire at the construction site earlier this year and twice the sign announcing the future site of the new Islamic center was vandalized.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131394552

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Judge Rules TN Mosque Construction Can Continue

Rachel Slajda | November 17, 2010, 5:32PM

A chancery court judge ruled today that the construction of a mosque in middle Tennessee can continue. The judge denied a request for a restraining order.

Three local residents had accused Rutherford County of breaking open meeting laws when it approved construction of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. Their lawyers -- http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/tn_mosque_lawsuit_funding.php">funded, in part, by an anti-Islam Christian Zionist group -- quickly made the suit about Islam, however. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/at_tn_mosque_hearing_plaintiffs_claim_islam_isnt_a.php">They claimed that Islam is not a religion, prompting the Justice Department to file a brief noting that the federal government has recognized Islam as a religion since the days of Thomas Jefferson.

The judge, Robert Corlew III, ruled that the three plaintiffs did not prove that they had been hurt by the mosque's approval. Nor, he said, did they prove that the mosque would pose a threat to the community. He did, however, say he was concerned about some of the associations of mosque members. Plaintiffs had argued that some leaders of the mosque had ties to extremists.

The hearing, which has dragged on for several weeks and featured star witness and notable http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/tn_mosque_opponents_bring_in_national_sharia_exper.php">fearmonger Frank Gaffney, often http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/tn_mosque_trial_continues_your_honor_this_is_a_cir.php">devolved into a circus. The plaintiff's lawyers asked witnesses if they believed in having sex with children (arguing that pedophilia is a tenet of Islam) and dismissed the DOJ's brief, arguing that one shouldn't trust the federal government because it once endorsed slavery.

Jim Cope, the county attorney who defended the case, told TPM, "We are indeed pleased that it has come to a conclusion."

Full article: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/judge_rules_tn_mosque_construction_can_continue.php#more


More on this can be found here: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/islamic-center-of-murfreesboro/2010/11/">TPMMuckraker Islamic Center of Murfreesboro: November 2010

Here: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/islamic-center-of-murfreesboro/2010/10/">TPMMuckraker Islamic Center of Murfreesboro: October 2010

And here: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/islamic-center-of-murfreesboro/2010/09/">TPMMuckraker Islamic Center of Murfreesboro: September 2010

Also, this vdeo from September: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x501105">Fearmonger Behind Murfreesboro Mosque Hate Campaign Gives Lame Excuses & Mosque Rep.Repudiates Them

[AsahinaKimi]

1. Can someone tell me

What happened to the America I grew up in? I don't recognize much of it these days. I would imagine if someone built a Buddhist temple in certain parts of the country, people would raise holy hell that China has invaded.


Kichigai zata.

[BolivarianHero]

2. I don't understand anymore...

If anyone tried this shit here in Ottawa, even most right-wingers would laugh in their faces and tell them to fuck right off.

[KingOfLostSouls]

7. I think I'm in love

back on topic.


I have no idea. honestly though, I always say, "when you bitch about muslims and shit, now you know how we natives feel when you put churches on our reservations."

sad thing is, islam isn't trying to conquer america the same way right wing conservatism is. the only people I see trying to impose their religious law on this country are conservatives.

[DavidDvorkin]

12. That America is a fairy tale

America has always been this way. It's only the targets of the hatred that have changed.

[Blue_Tires]

13. If you ever get an answer, PLEASE share it with me...

:argh:

[Honeycombe8]

3. Well, of COURSE the court denied that. What a silly argument the teabillies made!

This is not at all the same situation as the mosque near Ground Zero.

To ask a Court to prevent the building of a religious building because some residents heard through the grapevine that those people are evil? Really? They really thought that was a sound legal argument? I mean, you could say that about any organization, church, or person, couldn't you?

The teabaggers are losing their grasp on reality.

[uppityperson]

4. Sounds rather like the NY mosque.

To quote "To ask a Court to prevent the building of a religious building because some residents heard through the grapevine that those people are evil? Really? They really thought that was a sound legal argument? I mean, you could say that about any organization, church, or person, couldn't you? '

[Honeycombe8]

6. You didn't understand the objection, if that's what you think.

The objection to the NY mosque: People from your religion killed over 3,000 people two blocks away, claiming they were doing it in the name of your religion. We understand you have the legal right to build two blocks away, and we understand that YOU didn't commit the terrorist act, but it's insensitive. Can't you move it a little further away? You have a mosque that's several blocks from Ground Zero already, and no one has objected to that. So you have a guideline of how far away is not being insensitive.

The same argument was made years ago when the Vatican was going to build a church near one of the concentration camps in Germany. (The Catholic Church is considered complicit in some of Hitler's actions, and/or denied Jews safe haven, or something like that.) The Vatican's response: Oh, we didn't think about that. Sure...we'll build a little further away.

That's not the same thing as the Vatican building a church in Tennesse, where the residents say, "We don't want you to build here. We saw some e-mails saying that Catholics are going to commit Hitler-like acts here in America." Not at all the same argument.

[COLGATE4]

10. As I understood it, the proposed convent (not directly the Vatican)

was to have been built on an outlying parcel of Auschwitz-Birkenau. This would make it a valid argument only if the Muslim Center proponents were arguing that they could build on the footprint of 911. That is not the case.

[uppityperson]

14. Oh I understand quite well, " those people are evil".

2 blocks is insensitive but 3 blocks is not. That is" the guideline of far far away is not being insensitive"?

You do realize that much of the objection was because it was "being built on the site of 9/11 attacks", it was the "ground zero mosque", etc etc? Rather like as COLGATE4 put it: "the proposed convent (not directly the Vatican) was to have been built on an outlying parcel of Auschwitz-Birkenau. This would make it a valid argument only if the Muslim Center proponents were arguing that they could build on the footprint of 911. That is not the case." Except in the minds of many who have been sold that bill of goods.

Oh I understand quite well. "those people are evil"

[jberryhill]

15. That's why white people shouldn't live near Indian reservations /nt

I see your point.

[Honeycombe8]

17. They don't. Besides, reservations are different, aren't they? They prisons of a sort,

created by the white man.

I am baffled by Native Americans stay on reservations.

[Posteritatis]

9. I heard no shortage of "the NY mosque is being built by terrorists"

And I heard a hell of a lot of that on this forum. Lots and lots of Beck-esque "now, I'm not saying the people building this are terrorists, but they're probably being bankrolled by Osama bin Laden" bullshit, to say nothing of people outright claiming the people behind it were Wahaabists, which goes from ignorant speculation into baldfaced lying, much like the people in this story are doing in their own objections.

[lunasun]

16. agree -it is spreading everywhere

[Chulanowa]

5. What a gibbering pack of morons

[4lbs]

8. Funny how some idiots equate the building of a mosque with imposition of extremist law.

There's a mosque about 2 miles from where I live. Yet, for some reason, I don't feel oppressed, fearful, bullied, enslaved, etc.

I'd like to see that twit Frank Gaffney explain that one to me.

EDIT:

Furthermore, one of my clients is Muslim, and to boot, gives weekly sermons/speeches at this mosque. Interesting how he has never thought to impose his views upon me or any of my family. He doesn't even talk about Islam while we're working together.

But wait, I thought all Muslims were extremists and seeking to impose "Sharia Law" upon the world! I'm totally baffled now. :sarcasm:

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Frank Gaffney - the man Grover Norquist called "a sick, little bigot"

When even someone so thorough entrenched in the right wing calls you a bigot, there's not much room for doubt.