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Associated Press – December 7, 2006
Houston suburb objects to mosque plans
By RASHA MADKOUR
A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb (Katy) has blown up into a neighborhood dispute, with community members warning the place will become a terrorist hotbed and one man threatening to hold pig races on Fridays just to offend the Muslims.
Many neighborhood residents claim they have nothing against Muslims and are more concerned about property values, drainage and traffic.
But one resident has set up an anti-Islamic Web site with an odometer-like counter that keeps track of terrorist attacks since Sept. 11. A committee has formed to buy another property and offer to trade it for the Muslims' land. And next-door neighbor Craig Baker has threatened to race pigs on the edge of the property on the Muslim holy day. Muslims consider pigs unclean and do not eat pork.
"The neighbors have created havoc for us and we didn't expect that," said engineer Kamel Fotouh, president of the 500-member Katy Islamic Association.
Fotouh vowed to press ahead with plans for a mosque on the 11-acre site, as well as a community center that would offer after-school activities, housing for senior citizens, a fitness center and an Islamic school.
"We just bought it," Fotouh said. "And we are going to use it. We have the right like any one of them."
Katy, population 13,000, is a mix of middle-class bedroom-community neighborhoods and small farms on Houston's western edge and boasts of being the hometown of Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger. It is 70 percent white and 24 percent Hispanic.
The Houston metropolitan area has about 170,000 Muslims, according to the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, and among their many mosques is one built in Houston by former NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon.
The Islamic association bought the land in Katy in September for $1.1 million. It said the overall cost of the project has not been determined….
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061207/ap_on_re_us/mosque_pig_races_1
Herald News – December 10, 2006
Proposed mosque stirs heated debate
MICHAEL J. FEENEY
The Albanian Associated Fund, which represents nearly 200 families, has outgrown its Paterson mosque and is seeking permission to build a combination mosque, recreation and school building in Wayne, where a number of members already live.
About five years ago, the group bought 11 acres in the township for about $350,000 in an attempt to expand its facilities in safer surroundings.
The complex would sit atop a hill where Colfax Road and Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike meet. Neighbors have opposed the project, saying it will bring heavy traffic and contribute to existing flooding problems in the area.
In a July discrimination lawsuit filed at the federal level, Albanian group members claimed that township officials stalled approving the 4,715-square-foot mosque and 7,957-square-foot school for nearly four years at the planning board level, imposing unusually stringent requirements and several delays….
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk1JmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MDM2MDA2JnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRX l5Mw==
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