For more than 20 years, the Islamic Center of Northern Kentucky has rented space for a mosque in Florence, Ky., a suburb of Cincinnati.
The congregation kept growing, so the center's leaders purchased 5.5 acres to build their own mosque and Islamic center. Work was supposed to begin next April.
But this week, a website spouting the words, “Stop the Mosque” sprang up, and someone who dubbed himself "the vigilante" started handing out fliers to people who live in the neighborhood, urging them to try to stop the construction.
“I don’t think it’s even a dispute, it’s a tempest in a teapot,” says Karen Dabdoub, executive director of the Cincinnati chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The area where the facility will be built is already zoned for churches, synagogues, and other religious facilities, she says. In addition, opponents will be hard-pressed to complain about traffic since the mosque will be built across the street from one of the largest malls in the Cincinnati area.
City officials say they have had phone calls about the mosque and have tried to inform residents about the zoning. Nevertheless, the flier urges residents to “stop the takeover of our country.”
This language irks Ms. Dabdoub, who adds: “We’re Americans, we have the right to build a house of worship so we and our families can go to worship God. It’s one of the founding principles of our nation, and it is un-American to say everyone has the right to freedom of religion except for you all."
