Dano069

Saw this article in the paper today. The family and I looked at houses in this suburb, glad we chose not to move there. Boy, this girl's parents must be proud.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southt...ews/081nd6.htm


Mosque off agenda, but opponents press on

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

By Dan Lavoie
Staff writer

Deriding Islam as a "religion of hate" and calling all Muslims "terrorists," more than 100 Orland Park residents gathered outside village hall Monday night to protest a proposed mosque.

The rhetoric was noticeably more strident and more based on the mosque backers' religion than the arguments of opponents at earlier meetings.

"Why should we let them into our town?" 12-year resident Andrea Schweda said. "(Muslims) already hate us and they hate America."

Habibah Ayyash said talk like that brought her to the meeting.

Dressed in a hijab, or head scarf, Ayyash, a first-grade teacher who has lived in Orland Park for four years, said she has been disheartened by the increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric of the mosque's opponents.

"It makes me sad," she said. "I think having a mosque here would help (protesters') understanding. Maybe having a place here for us to worship would let them learn about us and see who we are."

Many protesters were lured to the meeting by an anonymous anti-mosque flier sent to every home in the village during the past two weeks.

The flier told residents the "last hearing" on the mosque would be June 7.

Consideration of the mosque proposal was postponed to June 21 more than two weeks ago because Mayor Daniel McLaughlin was already scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., on village business Monday.

Many protesters were suspicious of the delay and pledged to vote out the mayor and trustees if the mosque is eventually approved.

"It's a smoke screen," said Phil Gerk, a 30-year resident of an unincorporated area near Orland Park about 1/2-mile from the mosque site. "They're just trying to slide this by."

The talk among the protesters during and after the meeting was almost exclusively focused on the mosque backers' religion.

During earlier public meetings, many opponents talked about traffic, parking and flooding concerns. Such issues were barely mentioned Monday.

The 22,000-square-foot mosque is backed by a prominent Orland Park businessman and two doctors, one from Palos Heights and one from Orland Park.

They say the mosque is needed to serve the southwest suburbs' growing Muslim community.

Though there are no statistics tracking the growth of the local Muslim community, many Chicago-area Muslim leaders estimate there are at least 100 Muslim families in Orland Park and two or three times that many in surrounding communities.

Many of the protesters said they fear a new mosque would speed the growth of the local Muslim community.

"They're all going to move here and take over our town, that's what's going to happen. Just watch," Schweda said.

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I may look attentive, but I'm taking peeks down your blouse faster than the human eye can follow.

maleficent

And ALL blacks are criminals
ALL Hispanics are lazy
ALL Irish are drunks (well most are)
ALL Latinos are womanizers
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I love it when i can start the morning pissed off at other peoples close minded attitudes. The fact that children have this attitude is even more disturbing, children are usually pretty accepting of everyone.

Racism is taught, the parents of these children should be taken out back and shot for teaching this.

Grrrrr

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maleficent

OK, I'm still steamed over this...How much do you want to bet that these protesters spend Sunday in the church of their choice and consider themselves good Christians.

I'd be willing to go with the argument that it'd be an increased traffic pattern, but, whatever happened to freedom of religion.

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:::OshnSoul:::

yikes. it's sad to see americans assume that of all muslims. i think we're asking for it if we keep this up.........

lurkette

Sigh....ignorance knows no national borders.

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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

- Anatole France

Cynthetiq

a shame that the world is colored by a few bad apples.

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Asuka{eve}

Oh my god. I knew the world is doomed. Someone has to clear these misconceptions now!

maleficent

In further reading this article, it's only 100 or so residents that feel this way, and are making their opinions heard, however, Orland Park has a population of about 50K, it's the other 49.900 residents that trouble me. There's an old quote, that I don't know who it's attributed to, but Evil triumphs when good men (and women) stand by and do nothing.

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thespian86

I am truely disgusted by this. I hate close minded people, lets go have a protest... whats that? Oh yeah... I mean, I dislike it when people are close minded... yeah.... carry on....

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EX: uh...
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