Muslim Group Defends Plan to Build Maryland Facility
By Jim Brown, OneNewsNow.com A spokesman for a Muslim group that is seeking to construct a large worship and recreation facility on a farm in a small western Maryland town is seeking to allay the fears of residents who believe the Muslim center would threaten their quality of life.
The Walkersville Board of Zoning Appeals will be holding a public hearing January 8 on a request by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community for a special exception to the town’s agricultural zoning ordinance. The Silver Spring, Maryland-based Muslim group is seeking to build a large worship and recreational center that would attract up to 10,000 Muslim worshippers for a two-day conference each year.
Syed Ahmad, the Ahmadiyyah Community’s project manager, says the planned facility will not be a convention center, but rather a multi-purpose community center that will include two gymnasiums that can be used for both recreation and worship. “Obviously they will be used, and available for the local community, to the local athletic association, or the high school, or other organizations, churches, or other non-profit organizations,” explains Ahmad.
Ahmad says he has been trying to explain to locals that his group’s brand of Islam does not promote violence. He says that they follow the teachings of a leader who taught his followers to love and respect others. According to Ahmad, the Ahmadiyyah Community has a more than 100-year record of non-violence, and believes in secular government and basic human rights. Because of that, he says, its members have been persecuted in the Muslim countries that they come from.
(Source: OneNewsNow.com)
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