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.

The following are a series of articles from the Sheboygan Press, some of which are no longer available online about protests against a mosques in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.  We challenge those who reject freedom of worship and seek to deny human rights and freedoms to any religion or any identity group.

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Mosque idea meets with opposition – Town of Wilson residents raise terrorism fears

Sheboygan Press

A Manitowoc doctor is proposing to convert the former Tom’s of Wisconsin health store into a Muslim mosque, riling some nearby residents.

March 8, 2010

The Town of Wilson town hall was packed for a public hearing last month when Mansoor Mirza presented plans to invest up to $20,000 to convert the 5,000-square-foot building at 9110 Sauk Trail Road into Sheboygan County’s first mosque.

“It did not go as I expected,” said Mirza, an internist at Woodland Clinic in Manitowoc.

What he said he heard from the audience, many of them from Oostburg, was that the mosque might attract terrorist elements to the area.

Oostburg resident Melvina Gall, who attended the hearing, said a mosque “would be detrimental to the health and welfare of our community. Look at the track record in the past of what the Muslims have done and are doing,” referring to terrorist attacks in recent years.

“He’s going to have people coming from all over the area. I surely don’t know these people,” Gall said. “There might be a couple who might have on their mind to harm Christians.”

Rev. Walter Hackney, interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Oostburg, said he does not oppose the proposed mosque “from a freedom of religion point of view,” but from a safety standpoint.

“Can there be a government official who can assure us that they will not in anyway be teaching or doing things that are unsafe for the community,” he said in a telephone interview. “I have concerns about it.”

In an article titled “The Muslims May Be Coming” that he wrote for the church newsletter, which is available on the church’s Web site, Hackney said:

“Does this group of Muslims denounce violence against Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims? If so, how much of a paper trail in English and Arabic has the group already written about such matters as 9-11 or the treatment of Jews and Christians in Muslim-majority countries? How much is presently written about these issues on their website? Even more importantly, what kind of accountability will be in place? Will there be a non-Muslim county or village official (that fluently reads and speaks Arabic) who will certify annually that this group is not teaching fundamentalist /terrorist ideologies? If so, who will be paying for this service? Will they seek to have legal exemptions for or special treatment because of their Muslim faith?”

“We are not terrorists,” said Mirza, a Pakistani who moved to the United States in 1988. “We just want for our community to follow our religion and have a place where we can pray.”

Mirza said 80 to 100 Muslim families live in Sheboygan County and that many, if not most, hail from European countries such as Bosnia and Albania. He estimated five to 20 families would attend the Sauk Trail Road mosque, if it’s approved.

The nearest mosques are in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Appleton, he said.

Mirza has applied for a conditional use permit to use the site as a place of worship. The site is currently zoned highway commercial.

After last month’s public hearing, the matter was referred to town staff and will be before the Plan Commission again at 7 tonight for a report from the town’s building inspector and to vote on whether to grant Mirza an extension on his request.

Gall said she and other residents will be on hand, but Town Clerk Cheryl Rostollan said there probably won’t be opportunity for public comment until it comes before the Town Board.

Town Chairman David Gartman said he has received “only one or two phone calls” on the matter.

“I’m trying to not get into a judgment before it comes before us” on the Town Board, Gartman said.

Mirza bought the property as an investment and plans on renting it to the Islamic Society of Sheboygan County. Classes for children to learn the Quran, the Islamic scriptures, have already been held in the building.

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May 12, 2010

Special Report on mosque debate: Community grapples with terrorism vs. freedom to worship

By Dan Benson
Sheboygan Press staff

Editor’s note: This was a Special Report print-exclusive story that ran Sunday and is now available to online readers.

Officials in the Town of Wilson may decide soon whether to grant a conditional use permit to a group that wants to establish the county’s first mosque in the former Tom’s of Wisconsin building at 9110 Sauk Trail Road.

Mansoor Mirza, a Pakistan-born physician who recently moved to Sheboygan from Manitowoc, bought the property last year and plans to lease it to the Islamic Society of Sheboygan County. Mirza said 80 to 100 Muslim families live in Sheboygan County and that many, if not most, hail from European countries such as Bosnia and Albania. The conditional use permit is needed to allow the site to be used as a place of worship. The site is currently zoned highway commercial.

Technically, the main issue is whether the building’s septic system has been brought up to code, which the Islamic group says it is.

But to many Sheboygan County residents, the debate is between protecting the United States from international terrorism or defending the nation’s Constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship.

It’s a debate that’s divided many people, especially in nearby Oostburg.

Islamic fundamentalists “could walk into this church tonight right where you are sitting and blow us all to smithereens,” Brigitte Gabriel, who leads the Florida-based group, ACT for America, warned an audience of nearly 600 people via live video feed Wednesday night at First Reformed Church in Oostburg.

“This country was founded on religious freedom,” said Richard Edwards, teaching pastor at Bethel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Oostburg and a professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan, who addressed a group of nearly 300 people at his church last Sunday. “These people have a right to worship as they choose and I want to worship the way I choose. Freedom of religion is the American way.”

Since then, “I’ve had some people who have accosted me in a public place and questioned my commitment to Christianity,” he said.

County Supervisor Devin Lemahieu of Oostburg received three anonymous phone calls accusing him of spreading hate speech after he reprinted a three-page article titled, “Stealth Violent Extemism,” from American Legion magazine in the April 29 issue of Lakeshore Weekly, a shopper that he owns. The article says the ultimate goal of Islamic fundamentalists is to institute Islamic law, known as Shariah, throughout the world.

The article was an advertisement paid for by Bill Hopeman, a Hingham shop owner, and “three or four others,” Hopeman said. He declined further comment.

Also in that edition was an advertisement from the Rev. Les Kuiper, senior pastor of First Christian Reformed Church in Oostburg. In the ad, Kuiper noted that his church gives up to $90,000 a year to a missionary in an Islamic country.

“I doubt that this missionary would post a public message declaring that his neighbor’s god is a deceptive anti-Christ who threatens public safety and security,” Kuiper wrote, referring to other ads that had appeared in the Lakeshore Weekly the week before.

“Generally, the ad was in response to the tenor that seems to be in our community right now,” Kuiper said in a telephone interview. “There seems to be a lot of fear and I guess I can understand people having some fear, but I guess I don’t think it’s appropriate to make those kind of statements in a public posting.”

Posing a threat

In another meeting last week, more than 150 people on Monday filled the Rocca Room at Mead Public Library to overflowing to hear Karl Kuhn, an ordained United Church of Christ clergyman and religious studies professor at Lakeland College, talk about the basics of Islam and the diversity of people within it.

“The very idea that a gathering of Muslims poses a threat to a community shows a misperception that Islam is inherently connected to violence,” he said. “Muslims everywhere, especially in Western nations, find the actions of terrorists reprehensible.”

He often lost control of the meeting, however, as the audience, evenly split between mosque supporters and opponents, engaged one another.

“What if an imam says it’s time to rise up?” against Americans, one woman yelled. An imam is a Muslim religious cleric.

“I feel very confident that we won’t experience anything but the joy and friendship of neighborhood and fellowship” as a result of a mosque being created, said the Rev. Lorri Steward, pastor of Ebenezer United Church of Christ in Sheboygan.

Mohammed Yessin and his wife, Ebpssam, who moved to Sheboygan from Syria 25 years ago and hope to attend the new mosque, were at the Monday night event “to hear what people are thinking,” he said.

“They asked some good questions. They asked some crazy questions, too,” said Yessin, a Kohler Co. retiree who raised five children in Sheboygan, all of whom graduated from North High School. “Overall, I was pleased with what I heard.”

Without the mosque, Yessin and other Muslims say, they will have to continue traveling to Milwaukee, Appleton, Green Bay or Kenosha to find a place to worship.

The Rev. Gregory Whelton, senior pastor of St. John’s United Church of Christ in Sheboygan, said, “I’m absolutely certain that if any Christian said the nearest church was in Milwaukee or Green Bay or Madison, they would want to have one closer. It doesn’t seem very Christ-like to not allow them to do that.”

Whelton is president of the Sheboygan County Ministerial Association, which sponsored the Monday forum.

“Our Muslim neighbors are here and they’ve been here for years,” he said.

Public safety an issue

The Rev. Wayne DeVrou, senior pastor of First Reformed Church in Oostburg, opposes the mosque and says the town should reject the proposal on public safety grounds.

That’s because, he says, the Islamic Society of Sheboygan County is affiliated with the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, which is a member of the Washington, D.C.-based Islamic Society of North America and of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, both of which have been accused of being fronts for terrorist organizations.

In an e-mail to town officials, he wrote: “I have reasons to be skeptical of what the true intentions of the (Islamic Society of Sheboygan County) are in relation to the future use of the facility, what will be taught in the mosque and their affiliations with terrorist groups. I believe that they are misrepresenting themselves to you and the surrounding community.”

The Rev. Walter Hackney, interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Oostburg, said in an article he wrote for his church’s newsletter that if the mosque is approved, the town should hire an Arabic-speaking staff member to keep tabs on the group.

“What kind of accountability will be in place? Will there be a non-Muslim county or village official (who fluently reads and speaks Arabic) who will certify annually that this group is not teaching fundamentalist/terrorist ideologies?” he wrote.

DeVrou agreed that there are no guarantees of what might be taught in the mosque.

“There is currently no law against teaching hatred in mosques,” DeVrou wrote in an e-mail. “The local ordinance (to grant the conditional use permit) will have to be approved or denied without (consideration of) any of these factors, including the potential risk of safety.”

DeVrou has a son in the U.S. Army who is currently stationed in Afghanistan.

“I have a vested interest in this,” he said.

Community support

Last year, the town granted a conditional use permit to a church under similar circumstances. Mirza, the physician who bought the building, has said he will sue the town if it does not approve the application.

Mirza said he believes the Sheboygan-area community is generally supportive of his efforts to convert the 5,000-square-foot building into a mosque.

“Ninety percent of the people in Sheboygan are in support of the mosque,” he said.

Kuiper and Edwards said they’re concerned that the uproar over the mosque is distracting local churches from their true mission.

“Rather than being afraid, I think we as Christians simply need to be confident of the good news that we represent and focus on communicating the good news instead of reacting out of fear,” Kuiper said.

Kuiper said he doesn’t believe the issue has been divisive in the community, at least among the Oostburg clergy, who gather every Thursday for breakfast. Kuiper said the group is in the process of drafting a statement of unity in response to the debate.

Additional Facts
Coming up

The Town of Wilson Plan Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Monday to vote on recommending a conditional use permit to the building at 9110 Sauk Trail Road to be used as a place of worship. The Town Board will vote on whether to grant the conditional use permit when it meets at 6 p.m. Monday, May 17. Public comment will only be taken at the May 17 meeting.

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Video Link

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Sheboygan County Mosque Gets OK From Town Of Wilson Board (Wisconsin)
May 18, 2010
By Dan Benson
Sheboygan Press

After an hour and a half of fiery discussion, including comments from two dozen speakers, and before an audience of more than 120 people, the Wilson Town Board voted unanimously Monday night to grant a conditional use permit for Sheboygan County’s first mosque.

With the approval, Mohammad Hamad, the Imam, or spiritual leader, of the local Muslim community, said the first worship service at the former Tom’s of Wisconsin health food store at 9110 Sauk Trail Road would be held Friday, the traditional day of worship for Muslims.

Hamad said he was happy the process was over.

“I believe right now we have to focus on the future and put this harsh talk behind us,” Hamad said after the meeting.

“I was a little surprised at the misunderstanding” about Islam and the local Muslim community, he said, adding but the mosque will help open a door to better understanding.”

The proposal had drawn large crowds over the last several months to town Plan Commission meetings and several hundreds to public forums at local churches and other locations, with some saying the U.S. Constitutional guarantee of freedom of worship dictated approval while others said the mosque could attract Islamic fundamentalists and even terrorists to the area.

“I assume they are nice citizens,” Gordon Monson, of Sheboygan, said Monday night, referring to the Muslim community, a couple of dozen of whom were in the audience Monday night. “But they belong to an organization with a bad history.”

Image from May 18, 2010 Sheboygan Press on meeting

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.