Bloggers' Rights at EFF

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

IS THIS BLOG SITE OPEN or CLOSED?

OPEN, but since the main purpose of the blog was to provide info on the proposed Mosque in Newton County and since nothing is going on there at present, it is OPEN but other minor items are being posted about Islam and Mosques, over and above the original idea of what the site should be.  

Keep scrolling down if you want the info on the Newton County/Covington problems.

This recently appearing article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution has nothing to do with the original purpose of this blog site, which was to provide info on the Newton County and Covington (Ga.) land purchase for  the Mosque. It is used here, along with other items, to provide readers with info on Mosques and the general topic of Islam.  There has been some interest in this site from various Islamic countries, particularly Pakistan.  I have no idea why but all are welcome to take a look at the info here.

Note:  Kennesaw, Ga, also ended up getting sued when three years ago they tried to block the opening of a Mosque in a store front strip mall.  I lived in Kennesaw for 15 years and saw the issue develop.  So here is the latest info FYI.

You can also go directly to that Kennesaw info via:
 http://suffadawa.blogspot.com/ and the resulting civil suit against the City of Kennesaw at: http://suffadawatsuit.blogspot.com/

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Added on 11-16-18

RESIDENTS OBJECT TO MORE MOSQUE PARKING
Traffic, safety brought up; project approved in 2011.

By Amanda C. Coyne Amanda.Coyne@ajc.com

LILBURN - The expansion of Dar-E Abbas mosque’s parking lot in Lilburn has been approved since 2011, but now that the project is finally underway, some neighbors are objecting to the city council, Channel 2 Action News reported.

“I have no idea why this is happening because this plan was supposed to be started a long time ago,” said Wasi Zaidi, trustee and CEO of Dar-E Abbas.

The city and Dar-E Abbas reached an agreement over the planned expansion in 2011 after a two-year dispute that landed in federal court. At that point, the mosque believed it would take five years to raise the money to begin the first phase of construction; seven years later, it’s just begun, Zaidi told The Atlantajoumal-Constitution.

The project will add 178 parking spots to the mosque on Lawrenceville Highway near Hood Road. The parking lot will prevent members from having to park at nearby Bryson Park or at other locations when the mosque is busy, Zaidi said. But residents went to the Lilburn City Council meeting on Monday saying the parking lot could lead to extra traffic and slow emergency response services.

“Say, if we needed the police or the firemen and traffic’s in the way, they couldn’t get here,” neighbor Donna Chapman told Channel 2.

Zaidi rejected that idea, saying that the parking lot would just allow members who already regularly attend the mosque to have more convenient on-site parking.

“We’re trying to beautify the city and add convenience to our people for parking so we don’t have to use parking for the park,” Zaidi said. “We do have a few days when our services are in the daytime, but usually our services are when there is no traffic on the street. Our members are working people, they go to work and then after they come home they go to the mosque, so they are not creating additional traffic.”

A city study concluded that the mosque’s expansion, including the new parking, would have “little impact” on traffic during peak hours, Channel 2 reported. The city is exploring the possibility of adding a traffic light, something Zaidi said would be helpful to ensure safe traffic flow.

Zaidi and other mosque leaders did not know people would be complaining about the project during the city’s public comment period, but he said he’s open to talking to anybody who has problems or concerns.

“We love our neighbors. We don’t have any problems with our neighbors,” Zaidi said. “We need to keep our neighbors happy and do the right thing. ... They can come and talk to us, and we can try to solve their problems if we can.”


https://epaper.ajc.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=6961899f-3abe-4b37-a644-8d8c087b9455&pbid=8e0858ee-1443-484d-9e94-f8b8a1eaaaff&utm_source=app.pagesuite&utm_medium=app-interaction&utm_campaign=pagesuite-epaper-html5_share-article

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Misc Info/Comment:
Those familiar with the Robert Parker series of the Spencer novels might be interested to know that the 2017 book 'Little White Lies' has about 1/4th of the action in the Atlanta/Rockdale County area including a section where Spencer interacts with the supposed Owner/Publisher of the Rockdale Citizen. Some of the articles on this blog site are from this newspaper. 
  
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9/5/17 NOTE:   The below article is not on point to the Newton County/Covington Mosque issue, but due to the lack of anything going on regarding that problem and due to the interest shown in the blog site from overseas countries, I will drop it here at the top of the blog site as it is of 'general' interest and information.  Thanks for looking in now and then:


Settlement Paves Way for Pennsylvania Mosque Construction

(CN) – A nonprofit Muslim group was given the green light Tuesday to build a mosque in a Pennsylvania township after the Justice Department settled a year-long legal battle accusing the township of discrimination on the basis of religion.
The group, Bensalem Masjid, contacted the U.S. Department of Justice in 2014 alleging that Bensalem, Pa., denied its zoning application for a mosque in an act of religious discrimination.
After reviewing the group’s claims, the DOJ filed a complaint in July 2016 against Bensalem, claiming it violated the U.S. Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA.
Members of Bensalem Masjid spent more than a year looking for a suitable location before finally submitting their proposal for a 27,243-square-foot mosque to the town’s mayor, Joseph DiGirolamo.
After 18 meetings and six hearings over several months that included talks with DiGirolamo, Bensalem’s Township Council and members of its zoning board left the group no closer to approval for the mosque’s construction.
During the meetings, the zoning board raised concerns over the size of the mosque and specifically cited worries over the “possible growth of the mosque’s membership,” according to the DOJ’s complaint.
A proposal for a smaller mosque was also allegedly rejected, as was the group’s offering of abbreviated prayer services to address the city’s concerns over increased congestion.
Bensalem Masjid contacted the DOJ shortly after discovering that four Catholic schools, a Hindu temple and Buddhist temple were approved for construction in the same area where its proposed mosque was rejected.
Under Bansalem’s zoning codes, religious institutions are permitted only within the town’s so-called “institutional district.” Anyone wanting to build a religious institution outside that district must apply for a zoning variance and meet a series of specific conditions. The Justice Department claimed Bensalem Masjid met all five and was still rejected.
On Tuesday, the allegations were resolved in a settlement agreement granting Bensalem Masjid permission to use three adjoining properties to build its mosque in the township.
“The township has also agreed to review and amend its zoning ordinance to comply with the requirements of RLUIPA. Additionally, the township has agreed that it will advise its officials and employees about the requirements of RLUIPA, among other remedial measures,” the DOJ said in a statement.
The new mosque will mean more convenience for local Muslims. Until it is built, members of Bensalem Masjid must drive 20 minutes to reach the nearest mosque, which can prove to be a difficult task because the faith dictates that prayers must be recited five times a day and should be led by a dedicated imam.
John Gore, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement that federal law “protects the rights of all religious communities to build places of worship free from discrimination.”
“This agreement ensures that all citizens of Bensalem Township may freely exercise this important civil right,” Gore said.
Bensalem was founded in 1692 and is home to 60,000 people.



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8/3/17







Worth a look, it is from 2008 but there is a lot of info FYI.
Also if you have time you can drop in at one of my several blogs on Islam at: http://almaadalislami.blogspot.com/ This has links to other sites like the Mosque screw up in Kennesaw 3 yrs ago and another on the civil suit that cost the City of Kennesaw some $.

To better understand Islam, one must appreciate the thoroughly legalistic nature of the religion. According to sharia (Islamic law) every conceivable human act is categorised as being either forbidden, discouraged, permissible, recommended, or obligatory
MEFORUM.ORG
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Muslim Americans are more accepting of homosexuality than white evangelicals, Pew research says


Posted: 10:42 a.m. Wednesday, August 02, 2017


Ten years ago, only 27 percent of Muslims in the United States said homosexuality should be accepted by society and 61 percent said same-sex relationships should be discouraged.
But according to a Pew Research Center report released last week, the majority of Muslim Americans today — 52 percent — are now accepting of homosexuality, following a trend found in other American faith groups.
And even the Muslims who said religion is “very important” in their lives, have become 28 points more accepting since 2007.
Compared to other American faith groups, Muslim Americans are more accepting of homosexuality than white evangelicals (34 percent) and black Protestants (50 percent), but are not as accepting as white mainline Protestants (76 percent) and Catholics (66 percent).
Like Americans overall, Muslims now more accepting of homosexuality
Young Muslim Americans (Muslim millennials) also tend to be more accepting of homosexuality. Between 2007 and 2017, the percentage of Muslim millennials in America that said homosexuality should be accepted by society jumped from 33 percent to 60 percent.
The Pew report, which includes data from more than 1,000 adult U.S. Muslims, also found the majority of Muslim Americans continue to identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (66 percent) and 39 percent describe themselves as politically moderate.
Forty-four percent of Muslims eligible to vote cast ballots in last year's presidential election, compared to 37 percent in 2007. Those numbers on Muslim voting are compared to 60 percent of eligible voters overall who cast ballots in 2016.
Muslims overwhelmingly backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who drew 78 percent of their vote compared to 8 percent for Trump.
Alarmed by the anti-Muslim rhetoric during the 2016 campaign, American Muslim leaders, made an unprecedented push to register voters in mosques and at community events, leading to higher overall turnout.
Pew researchers estimate the number of U.S. Muslims has been growing by 100,000 each year, reaching 3.35 million, or 1 percent of the American population.
By 2050, they estimate Islam will supplant Judaism as the second-most popular religion in the U.S. with Muslims making up 2.1 percent of the future population.
Just over half of U.S. Muslims identify as Sunni, while 16 percent identify as Shiite. Nearly six in 10 adult American Muslims were born outside the U.S.
The largest share of immigrants come from South Asian countries such as Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, while others have come from Iraq, Iran, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.
American-born blacks make up about 13 percent of all Muslims in America, but their share is shrinking. Overall, eight in 10 are U.S. citizens, according to the survey.
Eight in 10 American Muslims also said they were concerned about Islamic extremism, and more than 70 percent said they were very or somewhat concerned about Islamic extremism in the U.S.
However, three of 10 said that most of those arrested recently on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack had been tricked by law enforcement authorities and did not represent a real threat.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017


Who is looking at this site?  Posted Aug 1, 2017
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U.S. Muslims see some bright spots this year

Support from individuals is up, they tell pollsters.


Marchers in September carry the national flags of Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and the United States during the Muslim Day Parade on Madison Avenue in New York. CRAIG RUTTLE / ASSOCIATED PRESS

This article is not directly relevant to this blog but it might be of some interest to readers, use the below link to see the entire article at:

http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/AtlantaJournalConstitution/Default.aspx#

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Islamic group is awarded $3.25M

Settlement allows mosque to be built in upscale N.J. town.


Muslim worshippers pray during a service at the Bernards Township Community Center in Basking Ridge, N.J. Bernards Township, N.J., will pay $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit over the township’s denial of a permit to build a mosque. JULIO CORTEZ / AP
A New Jersey town will pay an Islamic group $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit over its denial of a permit to build a mosque, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Under the settlement, the group will be allowed to build the mosque and the town agreed to limit the zoning restrictions placed on houses of worship.

The Islamic Society of Basking Ridge sued Bernards Township, an upscale town in central New Jersey, last year, claiming it changed its zoning ordinances in order to deny the group’s plans. The Justice Department also sued the town last year, alleging it treated the group differently than other religious groups.

The $3.25 million is to settle the Islamic Society’s lawsuit against the town, split into $1.75 million for attorneys’ fees and costs and $1.5 million for damages.

Through a spokesman, the township committee denied discriminating against the Islamic Society and maintained the denial of the group’s proposal was “based on accepted land use criteria only.” It noted that the group’s members have used other township facilities to practice their religion for years.

“We remain a united township where all are welcome,” spokesman Michael P. Turner wrote in an email. “This is the end of a long engagement on the application and opinions may still be varied, but it is in the best interest of the township to conclude the litigation.”

Central to the town’s concerns was parking. Township planners had concluded that because Friday afternoon was considered peak worship time, congregants would most likely be arriving straight from work and would each need a parking space.

But a federal judge disagreed, and wrote in a ruling Dec. 31 that the town hadn’t conducted similar assessments of worship habits when churches or synagogues had made applications.

The Justice Department lawsuit also alleged the town changed its zoning laws to require houses of worship in residential districts to be at least 6 acres — larger than the lot the Islamic Society had purchased in 2011.

Eight of 11 other houses of worship built before the zoning laws were changed are on lots smaller than 6 acres, the complaint alleged.

A similar lawsuit cost nearby Bridgewater Township almost $8 million in a 2014 settlement.

Last week, a Muslim group sued the city of Bayonne, claiming its proposal to convert an abandoned warehouse into a mosque and community center was unfairly voted down amid a climate of hostility and religious intolerance.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017





博客在EFF的权利 
MOSQUES - Info FYI
A couple of years ago I set up the below blog site to inform metro Atlanta about a Covington/Newton County issue regarding a large land purchase for a Mosque.
It was very controversial, for now it is just below the surface, waiting for the next action by the Mosque.

The blog site has moved on to other aspects of Islam, Mosques and hate groups.

It still gets some minor look ins from the metro Atlanta area but seems to have caught on in various overseas Islamic centers, both in Pakiastan and in Mecca (Saudi Arabia).

You can take a look at the site at: http://almaadalislami.blogspot.com/ and if you want info on the very heated issue of the Mosque in Kennesaw you can see that info at: http://suffadawa.blogspot.com/ and the resulting civil suit against the City of Kennesaw at: http://suffadawatsuit.blogspot.com/


Plans are in the works for a Muslim complex in a rural Georgia community. Newton County is located along I-20, approx 30 miles SE of greater Atlanta. As of 2010 census, the population was 99,958. The county seat is Covington. Contact Newton…
ALMAADALISLAMI.BLOGSPOT.COM













3/3/17

SPLC ranks Georgia among top 10 for hate groups



ATLANTA -- A disgraced journalist in Missouri is behind bars for making at least eight bomb threats against Jewish community centers across the country.
The Jewish Community Center Association of America says that, this year, there have already been more than 100 of those threats. The Southern Poverty Law Center says it is tracking a near-record high surge in the number of hate groups in the United States – and Georgia is in the top 10 of that list.
What you're seeing here is something the SPLC calls the “Hate Map.” it's used to track hate groups across the country. Georgia is up to 917 nearing the all-time high. The SPLC says there is a dramatic swell that started during the presidential campaign.

Click below to see the full map

The III% Security Force is an armed militia in Georgia willing to publicly display its weapons to show its support for President Donald Trump and its opposition to a Muslim group trying to build a mosque in Covington.
It is one of 32 organizations in Georgia the SPLC calls a hate group.
"We are within 100 groups of the all-time high number of hate groups in 30 years of counting," SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok said.
The KKK, skinheads, Neo-Nazis, black supremacists, and anti-Muslim groups are helping to rank Georgia ninth on that national list.
"Georgia obviously was long a part of the deep south and there is a kind of legacy that comes with that and we tend to see a lot of groups as a result," Potok said.
He has been documenting what he calls an explosive rise in the number of hate groups that have occurred since the turn of the century and are swelling once again.
"I think the wisdom of really tracking these groups has come to the fore in the last year or so as we have seen really a kind of tremendous surge on the radical right," he said.
Potok says a rise in right wing extremist groups isn't indicative of the overall problem.
"That understates the size of the radical right because, in fact, so many people don't join these groups now even while they are in a sense a part of the movement."
Potok points to Dylann Roof, the man behind the South Carolina massacre at an all-black church in Charleston. He says a major shift in our population can help to explain the increase in hate groups and extremists.
"Ultimately, in the next 10 or 20 years, we'll come out the other end."
Potok says it’s interesting to note that here in metro Atlanta, especially, there is a high number of black supremacist groups like the New Black Panther party and the Nation of Islam. We did reach out to some of the groups in this story before it aired, but they have not yet responded.
(© 2017 WXIA)  

http://www.11alive.com/news/splc-ranks-georgia-among-top-10-for-hate-groups/419690771




1/31/17

Mosque controversy was top story in Newton


Newton County commissioners said they were caught off guard in August when the county’s Development Services Department issued an administrative approval for plans by the Masjid-At-Taqwa Mosque in Doraville to develop a mosque, burial facility, and cemetery, with later plans for a school and residential neighborhood, on 135 acres on Ga. Highway 162. The county’s zoning ordinance allows houses of worship in all zoning districts, so no public hearing or approval were needed from the Board of Commissioners.
A large number of residents expressed fear and alarm about the development which, in turn, drew support for the mosque from within the community and from around the state.
In response, commissioners enacted a five-week moratorium on development of houses of worship in order to give Development Services time to review zoning provisions and the current trends for places of worship.
During the five-week period, commissioners held public hearings that drew hundreds of people — speaking both for and against — the mosque. A militia group protested on the downtown Covington Square, and others held signs of support for the mosque. There were threats of litigation against the county by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the U.S. Department of Justice. A media firestorm brewed, drawing dozens of TV cameras and out-of-town media representatives.
When the dust had settled, the moratorium that stalled the mosque expired with one tangible result: an ordinance that will require a public hearing process for commercial and public assembly developments of 10 acres or larger was approved by the Newton County Board of Commissioners.
Note:  The above is part of a longer article which addresses other issues and is not relevant to the Mosque issue so that part of the article is redacted.
Comment:  Henry Stamm  The stupidity of our local government is clearly exposed in this article and the attempt to justify and protect the officials is also clear. The crooked sale and secrete planning of the terrorist camp was intentionally not mentioned. Shame! Also the conning and prohibition of using the convenience facilities by the public even so we, the taxpayers, are paying for it is downplayed here. So Sad.

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12/21/16











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Mohammad Ali Chaudry, president of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, on the four-acre lot the organization has proposed as a site for a new mosque. The Justice Department has sued Bernards Township, which includes Basking Ridge, saying it violated federal law by rejecting the proposal.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times

BERNARDS TOWNSHIP, N.J. Mohammad Ali Chaudry, a retired financial officer, has lived in this prosperous town for 40 years. It is where he raised his three children and where he served as mayor, and before that, as a member of the school board. It was also where Mr. Chaudry, an observant Muslim, always wanted to pray.
But Mr. Chaudry and some 70 fellow Muslims have been stymied for years in their quest to build a mosque on a four-acre plot of land in Basking Ridge, a genteel community here that is as proud of its old oak trees as its old homes. A year ago, after 39 public hearings in which local officials and residents picked apart every aspect of the proposed mosque, the planning board rejected the proposal, citing issues like storm water management and pedestrian safety in the parking lot.
Now, the federal Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Bernards Township, arguing that its decision violated federal law and discriminated against the applicants purely because of their Muslim faith. The complaint, filed last month, follows a lawsuit brought by Mr. Chaudry’s Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, which has been subjected to anti-Muslim fliers and social media posts and even vandalism.
During the protracted application process, someone stomped on the group’s mailbox and later superimposed “ISIS” over the society’s initials on the mailbox. “This was unprecedented,” said Mr. Chaudry, the society’s president, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from Tufts University and teaches a course at Rutgers University on Islam. “No other house of worship in the township’s history had ever been treated the way we were.”
Across the country, more and more towns have used local zoning laws as barriers to new mosques and Islamic schools, underscoring what civil rights advocates say is a growing wave of intolerance that has been amplified by the victory of President-elect Donald J. Trump. In response, the federal government has been increasingly turning to the courts, using a law passed unanimously by Congress in 2000 that prohibits municipalities from discriminating against religions in land-use decisions or treating religious groups differently than secular ones.
While the law, with the arcane name Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, was intended to protect all religious faiths, 11 of the last 13 cases brought by the Justice Department — including three in the last month — have involved Muslims.
“The law, by its very nature, deals with particularly vulnerable populations,” said Mark Goldfeder, a senior lecturer at Emory University’s School of Law and a senior fellow at the university’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion. “It’s so easy for towns to hide discrimination behind layers of land-use procedure.”
But Muslim advocates and experts on religious freedom worry that Mr. Trump’s impending inauguration leaves the future of the powerful religious freedom law in doubt. The man the president-elect has nominated to lead the Justice Department, Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, has endorsed Mr. Trump’s call for a temporary ban on immigration from Muslim countries.
As the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Mr. Sessions might be less sympathetic to pursuing investigations involving the rights of Muslims. There are now 13 open land-use investigations under the law, though a spokesman for the department declined to say how many of those involved mosques.
Ross K. Baker, a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers who has studied the federal law, said it was “entirely possible” Mr. Sessions could choose to dial back on the investigations. “It is within the province of the attorney general-designate to decide whether to proceed with a lawsuit,” he said.



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A rendering of the proposed mosque.CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times

Another recent case brought by the department involved a proposed mosque in Virginia. The lawsuit argued that Culpeper County violated the religious land-use law in denying a sewage permit application. The complaint noted that since 1992, the county had considered 26 applications and never before denied such a permit to either a commercial or religious group.
In a speech this month at a Virginia mosque, Loretta E. Lynch, United States the attorney general, talked about the department’s response to a surge in hate crimes, highlighting enforcement of the land-use law. “Members of the Civil Rights Division have heard repeatedly about more overt discrimination in both the tone and framing of objections to planned religious institutions, especially mosques and Islamic centers,” said Ms. Lynch, who sent a letter to state and local officials on Thursday reminding them of the law and their obligation to respect religious freedom.
In the case of Bernards Township, the Islamic Society bought land that was in a zone that permitted a house of worship. Raising money from various sources, Mr. Chaudry oversaw the purchase of four acres, aware that the zoning code required at least three acres for a house of worship.
The society hired an architect who took pains to design a mosque that would blend in with the neighborhood, where a fire station stands across the street from the site. The 4,400-square-foot mosque, the size of a large house, would forgo the traditional dome and would include minarets that mimic the chimneys on neighboring houses.
“The mosque proposal met with vociferous public opposition,” the Justice Department wrote in its recent complaint. “Fliers, social media and websites denounced the mosque and were filled with anti-Muslim bigotry and references to terrorism and the 9/11 attacks.”
The federal lawsuit concluded that the planning board had used different requirements in denying the society’s application than it “had in evaluating previous applications.”
The language in the society’s own lawsuit was more blunt: “What should have been a simple board approval for a permitted use devolved into a Kafkaesque process that spanned an unprecedented four years.”
Nearly three dozen religious, legal and civil rights groups have supported the society’s lawsuit by signing amicus briefs, said the society’s lawyer, Adeel A. Mangi, of the firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.
Bernards Township officials deny that the applicants’ faith played any role in their decision. The mayor, Carol Bianchi, declined to respond to the allegations. But a statement by the township after the Justice Department filed its lawsuit asserted that the planning board’s denial was based on “legitimate land-use and safety concerns which plaintiffs refused, and to this day, refuse to address.”
The township’s most forceful response was reserved for the Justice Department, which it accused of a conflict of interest because one of its investigators served on the same board at Drew University’s Center for Religious and Cultural Conflicts as Mr. Chaudry. The township also claimed that the department’s communication with the Islamic Society before bringing the federal complaint suggested an “inappropriate collusion.”

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Vandals superimposed “ISIS” over the society’s initials on its mailbox. CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times

The United States attorney for New Jersey, Paul J. Fishman, a Democrat, looked into the township’s allegations and declared them baseless.
In July, the Justice Department released a report on its enforcement of the federal law since 2010, which detailed the growing proportion of cases involving mosques. It also found that while 84 percent of non-Muslim investigations were resolved without a lawsuit, only a fifth of cases involving Islamic institutions were similarly resolved.
In Bernards Township, much of the initial resistance to the proposed mosque centered on parking. According to the federal complaint, the local ordinance required 50 parking spaces for houses of worship based on a 3-to-1 standard ratio, or an average of three people arriving in one car. But a traffic engineer enlisted by opponents of the mosque recommended 107 spaces.
The planning board insisted the mosque meet that goal, which, in turn, raised new issues, like visual impacts and storm water runoff. The society’s complaint stated that applicants “dutifully revised their site plan and brought back professionals to testify time and again, only to find that the board had generated yet more requirements.” Mr. Fishman said the township “kept moving the goal posts.”
For Mr. Chaudry and other members of the society, the lack of a mosque has made worshiping difficult. The nearest mosque is 25 minutes away. Members have rented a local community center for Friday prayers, lugging in prayer rugs and audio equipment. But the center is unavailable in the summer so they pray in a public park. And the absence of a mosque has prevented the society from attracting a full-time imam.
During public hearings, some residents made anti-Muslim remarks, but town officials mostly restricted their comments to land-use questions. But in a trove of emails unearthed by the Justice Department investigation, and recently shown to the Islamic Society, the same officials shared their personal views of Muslims.
In one email, a member of the township committee, John Malay, wrote, “As a religion, Islam owes its source of influence to a tradition from Day 1 of forced conversion through violent means.”
In an email chain, members of the committee and planning board discussed ways to exclude Mr. Chaudry from a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in honor of town residents who died in the terrorist attack. “Let’s make it happen without that fool,” John Carpenter, a township committee member, said.
Mr. Chaudry is active in local groups like the Rotary Club and statewide committees promoting interfaith understanding. In 2013, Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, appointed him to the New Jersey Commission on National and Community Service. He also serves on the state attorney general’s Outreach Committee for the Muslim Community and the Interfaith Advisory Council of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
Outside the Dutch colonial on Church Street that serves as the society’s offices and where, members hope, a new mosque will one day stand, signs of patriotism abound. A sign amid American flags of various sizes proclaims, “Proud to Be an American.”
“We feel everybody should know that we are American,” Mr. Chaudry said.

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12/15/16
Not really relevant to the Newton County issue, but of some interest, here is one email to Mosque members for the Kennesaw Masjid showing what such Muslim institutions do over and above simply having a facility for prayer.  Additional info on this Kennesaw mosque is at: http://suffadawa.blogspot.com/



Assalamu Aalikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu


Alhamdulillah we have programs going on at the Masjid through which we can benefit as families and ultimately as a community at large.

In light of this, we had a program titled Stories of the Prophets last week on Friday, which insha'Allah we will continue next week.

Insha'Allah this week we will be having a Family Night on Saturday Dec. 17th after Isha Salaah (7:15).

It is very important that we as a community are as close as the sahabah of Medina and Mecca, but to develop such love and connection, we must make an effort to show up to events like these to firstly be involved in a congregational Ibadah by listening to the words of Allah SWT and his Messenger SAW, and secondly by meeting one another on such occasion.

All the brothers and sisters are requested to come and participate and encourage others to attend.

Dinner will be served so be sure to join us.

Jazakumullahu Khaira

Wassalaam.

Copyright © 2016 Suffah Masjid, All rights reserved.
Salaam! You signed up for our newsletter on our website.

Our mailing address is:

Suffah Masjid
2750 Jiles Rd. Suite 109
Kennesaw, GA 30144
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Information on a Mosque issue in Culpepper, Va. can be found at: 

http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/news/world_nation/justice-department-sues-culpeper-over-denial-of-mosque-permit/article_07a585a9-6724-5de8-9833-75ee10373771.html#comments

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12/6/16

  Islam  
‎By David Dodt‎, November 20

Okay, I’m going to tell you about Islam and how Mohammad created this religion by copying and modifying an existing religion that was in the region where he lived. You can find this if you hit the books yourself.

First, start by looking up ancient Gods of the Middle East. You can do this by online or go to your public library, like I did. You will get a list of these Gods like Ra, Karnack, Ball, Ishtar and Isis for example.

You will go down the list and you will see Allah (The Moon God.) Now you look up the Moon God Allah. Then you will find every ritual that Islam uses are the same. The Holy sites are also the same, Mecca.

Let’s go over a few. Example:

(1) Bowing to the East. The Moon God worshipers do this to pay homage to the wife of the Moon God, as she rises in the morning, The Sun God.

(2) They must travel to Mecca at least once in their lifetime to the Holy City of Mecca. So do Islamists.

(3) They must do this between the fazes of the moon. So do the Islamists and it’s called Ramadan.

(4) Once their, they walk several times around the big square stone structure that has a large drape over it. So do Islamists.

(5) A meteor fell to the earth and someone saw it and it was retrieved and brought to Mecca. It must be a gift from the Moon God. So as it is a gift from the Moon God you must kiss the meteor, this also is the same for the Islamist. Then you are expected to throw a rock at the evil Jinn. (the Trickster Demon) That is where we get the word Genie from.

Now the cymbal of the Moon God is the Crescent Moon or the Crescent Moon with an off set star. You see these in the flags of Turkey, Pakistan or on the tops of Mosques. The star is the Son of the Moon God. All the other stars are Allah’s daughters.

Did Mohammad live in an area where the Moon God was worshiped?

YES. In fact his father and Grandfather both had Allah in their very long names. Allah was worshipped 700 years before Mohammad was born. It was found, being worshiped, as far east as Babylon and as far north as Syria.

Now slavery was well known in that part of the world as well as the world in general. So if you opposed Mohammad you were killed or you converted to Islam. That is why, on the Saudi Arabian flag they have the words of Mohammad saying, “There is no God but Allah with a sword at the bottom of that quote.

So Mohammad the general and religious leader led a military campaign of death and terror against any other religion in the area. One area was against two Jewish Cities. These cities were prepared to repel Mohammad and his army. So seeing he would lose a lot of his army fighting these two cities decided to negotiate a treaty with them.

The people in the cities were delighted that there would be no war. As they were holding a feast of peace, Mohammad and his army, attacked and took the cities.

Mohammad kept two Jewish women as his own sex slaves.
Islam, to this day, still believes in the whole sex slave idea. Now you understand why the Israeli government is reluctant to cut a deal with Islam.

So Mohammad is a violent, distrustful, schizophrenic pedophile.

Why pedophile you may ask? Because his forth wife was only six years old. Her name was Aisha. It must have been hard to get a virgin back in the day. But it is said that he did not have full sexual relations with her until she was nine years old.

Saudi Arabia had the same rule for marrying but they have now risen the age to ten years old. So has Iran. —

with Kevin Hoyle.


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