MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (ABP) — Best known to history buffs as the site of a major Civil War battle and to Baptist insiders as the home of the independent/fundamentalist Sword of the Lord newspaper, usually quiet Murfreesboro, Tenn., has recently emerged as the latest battleground in America's culture wars.
Dusty Ray, pastor of Heartland Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, leads prayer at gathering point for protest march.
|
In January, someone vandalized a sign reading "Future Site of Islamic Center of Murfreesboro" on property purchased by local Muslims by spray painting the words "Not Welcome." Police never found the perpetrator, but in June vandals targeted the site for a second time by ripping the sign in half.
The second act came less than a week after community members, upset by the growing mosque's plan to move from a small facility they had long owned in the city to a much larger new site, packed a meeting of the Rutherford County Planning Commission. A month earlier, the commission had quietly given final approval to the congregation's relocation plans under a law that does not require a public hearing for plans for property already zoned for religious purposes.
Hundreds of angry citizens marched July 14 to deliver petitions demanding that officials halt construction until the public has a chance to air concerns about traffic and environmental impacts of the 52,000-square-foot, megachurch-style facility. It would include a 10,000-square-foot mosque, gym, kitchen and athletic fields.
Not bigotry, protesters claim
"This issue has nothing to do with religion," said Kevin Fisher, a former candidate for the local school board and the state legislature who organized the protest.
"No matter what you've been told, this has nothing to do with bigotry," Fisher told protesters from the steps of the historic county, courthouse where workers restoring the building in 2002 found a Civil War bullet resting on one of its columns.
"It has nothing to do with intolerance," Fisher insisted. "This has to do with us not getting adequate notice [of the zoning meeting]. This has nothing to do with how somebody worships."
Marchers cheered Fisher's assurances while carrying signs with messages like "Mosque Leaders Support Killing Converts," "Sharia Law Violates U.S. Constitution" and "Islam is not a Religion."
Dusty Ray, the pastor of Heartland Baptist Church who was called to a megaphone to bless the protest march with prayer, said his concerns go deeper than water pollution from a proposed cemetery on the property site.
"My main concern is that our freedoms are being threatened," Ray, whose church is independent, said. "We want to uphold the Constitution. That's what was given to us by our forefathers, and we're trying to uphold the principles therein."
"The principles of the Islamic nation do not coincide at all with our Constitution; in fact in their minds we're the infidels," he said. "So there's a huge concern there. We want to at least be heard, our voice to be heard, and certainly the concerns addressed by the city officials. We don't necessarily want to fight. We just want an opportunity to at least get our side out there for the folks to see."
Anti- (left) and pro-mosque protesters square off in Murfreesboro.
|
Counter-protest
The anti-mosque marchers were met at the public square by an equally large, if not larger, crowd estimated at more than 400 by organizers of Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom. The group, composed largely of students at the local Middle Tennessee State University, was formed hastily to counter the protest.
"I think things went really well," said Hudson Wilkins, a member of the organizing committee that recruited members in various ways including contacting local churches and on the Facebook social-networking Internet site. "We came together. We made our point, which is religious freedom is a constitutional right and civil liberty in this country. That is religious freedom for all people."
"I'm very, very happy with this turnout," Wilkins said. "We've all worked very hard, and I think that we've done a really good job. I'm really happy with this."
The close-quarters confrontation at the courthouse square resulted in no violence but some shouting and chanting matches. Wilkins said that wasn't why the counter-protesters were there.
"I don't think that confrontations like this are really very productive for one-on-one conversations," he said. "There was a lot of very heated debate, and we tried to keep that to a minimum, because when tensions get high and emotions get high, then people don't pay attention to each other. They're just yelling their own points."
Martin McCullough, a retired MTSU professor, watched the march from the steps of First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, where he is a member and Sunday school teacher. He said he was there as an observer rather than as a participant for either side.
"I'm one of the few that is neutral," he said. "I would like to see both sides come together in the future."
A fast-growing city of about 100,000 about 30 miles southeast of downtown Nashville, Murfreesboro is one of a number of municipalities facing dilemmas as the increasing number of Muslims in the United States creates the need for additional worship space. According to the Nashville Tennessean, at least 18 mosque projects from Mississippi to Wisconsin have run into fierce opposition over the past three years.
Current skirmishes include debate over planned construction of a mosque in New York City two blocks from Ground Zero of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and in Temecula, Calif.
-30-
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.