October 2016 Church & State - October 2015

Ga. County Roiled By Flap Over Mosque Construction

  AU admin

Hundreds of people gathered at the Newton County, Ga., courthouse on Aug. 22 to attend a public hearing and express opposition to a local Muslim community’s plans to build a mosque and cemetery outside of Covington.

Most speakers blasted the plan, with some even suggesting the mosque could become a terrorist training camp, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported – yet they insisted they were not motivated by anti-Muslim bias.

“To say we wish to disallow this project based on religious discrimination … is ludicrous and hypocritical,” an unnamed woman said. “They are discriminating against us by calling us infidels who do not believe in their religion.”

A local Muslim leader, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, said that fear shouldn’t lead to religious discrimination.

“For the sake of defending the Constitution, upholding American values … I encourage all Georgians to speak out against the unfair, unethical and unconstitutional behavior,” Mitchell, executive director of the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told a local TV station. 

County commissioners voted to put a moratorium on the construction of all houses of worship in the county, but that move drew backlash. The commissioners on Aug. 31 said they would lift the moratorium at a later meeting, but that meeting was cancelled due to security concerns.

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


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