Murfreesboro (TN) mosque opponents pack commission meeting

[Ed Barrow]

Hundreds of residents packed Thursday's Rutherford County Commission meeting where dozens voiced opposition to a planned Islamic center off Bradyville Pike in southeast Murfreesboro.

"We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam," said Allen Jackson, pastor of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro.

Many of the speakers questioned why the county's Regional Planning Commission approved the site plan for the 52,000-square-foot center south of Murfreesboro without including it in a public notice.

County Planning Director Doug Demosi explained that the site plan for the Islamic center did not require a public hearing because no change in zoning for the property was needed. He said the planning commission's meeting was advertised in advance in a local newspaper.


http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100618/NEWS01/6180332/1001/NEWS/Murfreesboro+mosque+opponents+pack+commission+meeting

[rzemanfl]

1. I thought Murfreesboro was just motels and truck stops. People

actually live there?

[Ken Burch]

2. Yep. And they're happily married to their kissin' cousins.

n/t.

[Lint Head]

3. Maybe the World Outreach Church needs to be investigated

for connection to bigoted right wing hate groups that call for the overthrow of the Constitutional protection of religious beliefs.

[onager]

4. A pastor has the "duty to investigate"?

"We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam," said Allen Jackson, pastor of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro.

What, did this asshat buy himself a Special Investigator badge at Wal-Mart? Did Tennessee law enforcement and Homeland Security go out of business?

Not that it sounds like any "investigation" is needed. Reading the full article, it seems the Muslims followed state\local legal procedures.

And along with a mosque, they're building a pool, gym and rec center that will be open to the public. I guess that includes the folks at "Pastor" Jackson's spookery.

As many of you know, I've spent 6 years living in Muslim countries. I have problems with Islam, but only those arising from my fundamentally atheistic world-view. I have exactly the same problems with Xianity, Judaism, and all other religions I know of.

Having said that, I have to add that while I was "a stranger in a strange land," an uncountable number of individual Muslims went far out of their way to treat me with hospitality, kindness and generosity.

I'm trying not to go off on my usual long-winded tangent here (TOO LATE!), but I'll give a couple of examples and shut up:

1. One day I was on a long walk thru Alexandria, Egypt (where I lived), and stopped to rest. Some Egyptian guys from a road-work crew were taking their lunch break. All they had to eat was some flatbread and fuul (bean paste). They tried to give me half of their lunch! And I was just a fat-ass American out for a stroll.

2. My daily commute to work took me thru a bunch of little villages nobody has ever heard of. These people are the poorest of the poor in Egypt, the fellaheen - peasant farmers. Except for (some) vehicles and (some) electricity, they pretty much live like their ancestors did in the days of the Pharoahs. Most of the work is still done by human power and is brutally hard - planting rice, chopping and picking cotton, etc.

I had a fight on my hands whenever I tried to buy anything in those villages - a sack of falafel, a glass of fresh sugar-cane juice, a bottle of water, etc. etc. Nobody wanted me to pay for anything because I was "their guest." Just amazing.

And I don't have any doubt that if I (or you) walked up to any house in those villages this very minute, we'd be welcomed, served tea and very politely forced to have dinner with the family.

Having also lived in Saudi Arabia, which was a LOT different, I think most of this Egyptian attitude comes from their national culture, not their religious beliefs. While Egypt is 95% Muslim, now that I think about it, one of the most touching gestures came from an Egyptian Catholic family (a real rarity!). For my going-away breakfast when I was leaving, they went out and bought pork - also a real rarity in Egypt.

[struggle4progress]

5. The pastor is son of the founder of this church and a product of Oral Roberts U.

So I'd guess he feels pretty sure of his righteous electedness and the inerrancy of his own views

[mothergooseminute]

6. "We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam," -Pastor Jackson

That is an amazing statement.