Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports our universal human rights of freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and freedom of worship for ALL people – without exception. We reject protests against houses of worship. (See also report: “Why Freedom of Religion Matters for MAS Mosques”).
In the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn, New York, it was reported that on June 27, 2010, between 200 and 300 people sought to protest a planned mosque 2812 Voorhies Avenue in Brooklyn. A group called Bay People, Inc. is leading the mosque protests.
Voorhies Avenue area in dispute for planned mosque
The sponsor of the project, the Muslim American Society (MAS), is also the same sponsor of a mosque project in Midland Beach on Greeley Avenue that is also being protested. The MAS group’s leader, Mahdi Bray, has been investigated for support for Hamas by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) for comments made at a rally in 2000. IPT states that MAS was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood; the IPT states “MAS denies it is a part of the organization, [although] it acknowledges that its foundations are with the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Reports have indicated that the protesters are divided between those who view that the Voorhies Avenue cannot accommodate the traffic for a new mosque, and those that reject the planned mosque due to Islamophobic views. The local blog/newspaper Sheepshead Bites addresses this split between the protesters in its article “Rally Reveals Conflict Within Anti-Mosque Movement.”
Voorhies Avenue Signs Protesting Planned Mosque (Photo: Sheepshead Bites)
A protest notice by Bay People, Inc. alleged called for protesters “Please be polite and tolerant.”
But The Brooklyn Paper has reported that one local counter-protester Guseyn Ibragimov who called for freedom of religion, was booed down and “ordered him to get off their street.” The Brooklyn Paper reporter Thomas Tracy also indicated that the divisiveness has spilled over into calls for violence and bombing against the proposed mosque, not unlike those seen in recent reader comments on the New York Post web site and those made on AM radio stations.
The Brooklyn Paper also quoted an anonymous local man, who reportedly lives across the street from the planned mosque, and who threatened to bomb the planned Voorhies Avenue mosque, telling the reporter: “If they build a mosque there, I’m going to bomb the mosque.. I will give them a lot of trouble… They’re not going to stay here alive.”
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Responsible for Equality And Liberty supports our universal human rights for all. We reject and oppose all calls for intolerance, hate, violence, and terrorism. We urge all those who promote hate and intolerance to unburden their hearts.
Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.
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Media Reports:
The Brooklyn Paper: ‘What kind of America’? Hate-filled rally to stop mosque
Sheepshead Bites: Rally Reveals Conflict Within Anti-Mosque Movement
Photographs of June 27, 2010 protest against New York City mosque in Brooklyn
