Houston Suburb Objects to Mosque Plans; Neighbor Threatens Pig Races

[dfwcre8tive]

KATY, Texas — A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb 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...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,235258,00.html

[RobertB]

KATY, Texas — A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb 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...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,235258,00.html
Two paragraphs stood out for me:

As for the Web site, the address is virtually identical to that of the Katy Islamic Association. The site claims the neighbors will have to hear the Muslim call to prayer from the mosque's minaret five times a day — the Islamic group denies that — and offers an audio sample.
Isn't it strange how uncomfortable many Americans would be to hear a call to prayer five times a day? Yet aren't we Christians supposed to "pray without ceasing"? Is the discomfort born of fear... or jealousy?


Though he now concedes the Muslims are probably not after his land, Baker said he is obligated to go through with the pig races, probably within the next few weeks, because "I would be like a total idiot if I didn't. I'd be the laughingstock now because I've gone too far."
Mr. Baker, I'm sorry to break the news... but the "being like a total idiot" ship has already sailed. And you're on it.

[grantboston]

This is interesting. There was a story in the NYTimes business section about how Hakeem Olajuwon has made it big in the Houston real estate business. He apparently converted a historic downtown bank into a mosque with little trouble. The article said he kept the historical touches of the building and everything.

So maybe these people in Katy need to get a famous local sports star to build the mosque. That seems to be the ticket.

[banking214]

I can understand local backlash at the proposed mosque. The area the mosque is proposed to be built is still somewhat "country". The thought of having to hear the call to prayer 5 times per day just seems so foreign to people in this area. I for one, would not want to hear this. I believe in freedom or religion and speech, however, Islam seems to be a religion based on hate and intolerance.

[rantanamo]

intolerance + intolerance = ?

[grantboston]

^As a Catholic, I feel completely safe saying that Islam is not built on hate and intolerance. But, I'll also say that I've been awaken by the call to prayer before when I was in the Middle East. If you're close to a minaret, it could be possible if they play it loud enough.

In terms of land use, I feel like this project is not nearly as bad or an eye-sore as a lot of megachurches with sprawling parking lots. It would be nice if they could making P&Z decisions based on code and not mislead fears of attracting terrorists.

[RobertB]

I can understand local backlash at the proposed mosque. The area the mosque is proposed to be built is still somewhat "country". The thought of having to hear the call to prayer 5 times per day just seems so foreign to people in this area. I for one, would not want to hear this. I believe in freedom or religion and speech, however, Islam seems to be a religion based on hate and intolerance.
"Seems" is the key word here. Your perception is based on what you've heard on the news, as is that of most of the country.

Put yourself in the other guy's shoes for a minute, and imagine that your only views of Christianity came from news articles about cases like these:

"My children weren't righteous. They stumbled because I was evil. The way I was raising them they could never be saved. They were doomed to perish in the fires of hell." - Andrea Yates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Yates)

"On the morning of November 22, 2004, Dena had been reading the Bible, as she had nonstop for four or five days, when she was overwhelmed by a feeling something was wrong. A Bible verse from Matthew was reverberating in her mind. "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." [...] Dena went to a kitchen drawer, pulled out a 9-inch knife and walked into the baby's room. While gospel music played, she cut off Maggie's arms. The infant flailed, suffering 50 cuts on her face. Then Dena stabbed the knife deep into her own left shoulder." - The Dallas Observer (http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2006-05-18/news/feature_full.html) on Dena Schlosser

If stories like these were all you heard about Christianity, wouldn't you have trouble believing that our faith is about forgiveness and welcoming, not religious insanity? And I'm not even touching on the politicization of faith -- there's are entire books on that subject.

So don't be so quick to describe one faith or another as "based on hate and intolerance". The unfortunate fact is that all faiths have been tarnished by those human attributes. Or to put it in Christ's own words, "first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:5 (http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/tools/printer-friendly.pl?book=Mat&chapter=7&translation=rsv&x=9&y=7))

[psukhu]

intolerance + intolerance = ?

War and genocide.