Neighbors in Texas object to mosque plan

December 08, 2006|Rasha Madkour, Associated Press

KATY, Texas -- A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb has triggered a neighborhood dispute, with community members warning that the place will become a terrorist hotbed and one man threatening to hold pig races on Fridays just to offend the Muslims.

Many neighborhood residents maintain they have nothing against Muslims and are more concerned about property values, drainage, and traffic.

But one resident has set up an anti-Islamic website with an odometer-like counter that tracks terrorist attacks since Sept. 11. A committee has formed to buy another property and offer to trade it for the Muslims' land. And next-door neighbor Craig Baker has threatened to race pigs on the edge of the property on the Muslim holy day. Muslims consider pigs unclean and do not eat pork.

"Neighbors have created havoc for us, and we didn't expect that," said Kamel Fotouh, president of the Katy Islamic Association.

Fotouh vowed to press ahead with plans for a mosque on the 11-acre site, as well as a community center that would offer after-school activities, housing for senior citizens, a fitness center, and an Islamic school.

"We just bought it," Fotouh said. "And we are going to use it."

Katy, population 13,000, has a mix of middle-class neighborhoods and small farms on Houston's western edge.

The dispute began when the group asked Baker to remove his cattle from their newly bought land. Baker agreed but mistakenly thought the Muslims also wanted him off the land his family has lived on more than 100 years.

Baker's attempt to offend missed its mark, according to Fotouh. Muslims do not hate pigs, he said; they just don't eat them.

The reactions have not been all negative. Fotouh said one man came to the mosque on a Friday afternoon and apologized for his neighbors. "He moved me, really," Fotouh said. "The sense of fairness, the sense of standing by the underdog."