Lead story in today's (Nashville) Tennessean:
Chancellor Robert Corlew III denied opponents of the mosque an emergency injunction that would block the construction of the project, saying they failed to prove that Rutherford County violated open meetings laws or illegally approved the site plan. In spite of the plaintiffs' fiery accusations that Islam is not a religion but a violent political movement looking to supplant U.S.laws, Corlew barely mentioned terrorism or public safety concerns, saying that the county's planning commission isn't the proper venue to vet such claims when approving a site plan.
Keep in mind, this is the same place that had equipment at the construction site hit by arson last spring.
In fact, the trial over the zoning decision got a visit from US Attorneys investigating said arson. They wanted to keep that ongoing investigation out of this proceeding. The coverage in the Murfreesboro Post leaves an Orly Taitz-like impression of plaintiff attorney Joe Brandon, Jr. It's a wonder he didn't end up in contempt of court, considering how he mouthed off when objections against him were sustained:
"Is your idea of an afterlife strapping a bomb to your chest and blowing yourself up so you can get you some virgins," Brandon asked Detective Groce to sustained objections on relevance.
Much as I'm tempted to, I can't quote the whole article. It's definitely worth a look to see how whacko these anti-mosque militants are. But I can toss in a bit more.
"How does it make you feel that we have a President who says, 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction,'" Brandon asked several witnesses.
This from one of said witnesses:
"When someone is not native born and we don't know what their message is, we should investigate and bring in Homeland Security and the F.B.I. before any permit is allowed," Coker said on the stand. "When you have a congregation speaking Arabic and you don't know what they are saying, then that I have a problem with that," Coker added. Corker went on to say she once believed Islam was a religion, but that 9-11 changed her mind.
Two days earlier, same paper:
"Isn't it true that in the Qur'an Mohammad had a six-year-old wife that he had sex with," Brandon asked a county commissioner on the stand. "Is that your idea of what a religion is?"
The Feds apparently don't qualify in identifying Islam as a religion. This is kinda funny coming from just a few counties over from the birthplace of the KKK:
"Did you say that you want the federal government that supported slavery to tell this court that Islam is a religion," Brandon asked Jordan.
They're going on and on about the threat of Sharia Law taking over in rural Central Tennessee, child molestation and the like. Yet the mosque has been there for over 20 years, so the locals have had a chance to check them out. The new facility is being built because they've outgrown their old building. Never mind that the Bible has polygamists and people who married children and all, too.
Last June, the County Commission gave the project the go-ahead:
Despite the outrage, county officials said Thursday that the plan will go ahead. They defended their decision by noting that the mosque plan met zoning requirements and it is illegal to reject a project for religious reasons.
Nevermind that no one objected until two months after the project was approaved.
I've read that Tennessee made it legally extra easy for places of worship to get built - less requirements than for other kinds of construction. I'm looking for a link about that to add. In the meantime, this from the coverage of the just-completed trial:
Dean also said the county resolution that zones most land for religious meeting places, houses or farms and does not require any public hearings on rezoning is a common government practice in Tennessee.
Here it is ---
Demosi explains that county law provides a specific zoning regulation for religious use that absolves the institution of certain conditional-use permits that other businesses might have to obtain. The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was not subject to public hearings when it proposed its expansion — but by the same token, neither was the World Outreach Church, an 80,000-square-foot Christian church six miles across town. In Rutherford County, religious-use sites are considered "use-by-right" — that is, so long as your paperwork is in order, you need only the approval of the commission at a single public meeting, to be advertised in advance in a local paper of record. (As proof this happened, the receipt is also in the mosque file.)
Mebbe that's part of the motivation for the Islam's not a religion brouhaha.
Tennessee's got a long history of religious sectarianism, and was an original hotbed of revival meeting religion in the early 1800s (according to the WPA's Guide to Tennessee.) It was the home of the Scopes Monkey Trial, too, a century or so later. H.L. Mencken's A Religious Orgy in Tennessee, a book that collects all his journalistic coverage of that trial, is worth a look. Tennessee's still capable of erupting in all sorts of toxic, mean-spirited kerfuffles. Might be that arson's not the last of the trouble that'll be seen in the ongoing saga surrounding the building of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.