Would you have a problem with a mosque being built in your area?

I don’t have an issue with it at all. People need places to worship. Hell, we have tons of vacant lots that aren’t doing a damn thing- I’d be thrilled if people wanted to build on here in the neighborhood.

I have problems with places of worship altogether, but they should have the same right I guess. Although building one where the towers were or nearby is just a blatant slap in the face.

Are they going to be blaring their horns or yelling into the neighborhood 5 times per day calling for prayers? That would bother me and all my other neighbors.
Will they object to our usual block parties? We have been holding them for 25 years.
Will they object to women in the neighborhood walking around “Immodestly”?
Will they pay taxes?
If the answers are: No, No, No, Yes. then my answer is : “Welcome, neighbors.”

I would have just as much (or not) of a problem with it as I would if it were a church, synagogue, temple, etc. I don’t agree with the religions, but I can’t stop people from having somewhere to worship.

@Blackberry I don’t think that would be a slap in the face. The terrorists accused of being responsible for the 9/11 attacks just happened to be Muslims. The Muslims accused of being responsible for the 9/11 attacks didn’t just happen to be terrorists.

@jfos A lot of people don’t understand your last statement. Sad.

I don’t really care myself. I am often appalled at how over-represented Christianity is in many places where there isn’t even a synagogue or a mosque. Where I live, there is a substantial Jewish population and there isn’t a single synagogue but there are a huge number of churches. The same is true of Muslims. There are not nearly as many as there are Jews but there enough to warrant a Mosque, in my opinion.

@jfos: What a wonderful statement. Thank you for making it.

I would also like to say that I think it’s preposterous that religious institutions don’t have to pay taxes.

No, why would I?

One of this nation’s founding tenants is “Freedom of religion.” How can we preach it if we don’t practice it?

@jfos Yeah, fair enough.

No more so than any other place of worship. I think there are too many of all of them!

I wouldn’t have a problem with it as long as we all can coexist. But the moment one of their early morning calls to prayer wake me, then I’m sure to be a grouch!

Would you have a problem with a mosque being built in your area? Not more than any other type of building.

From what I’ve heard, a lot of people are up in arms about mosques being built around the US. Why? People tend to be afraid of what they don’t understand.

What’s the big deal? People are afraid that a mosque would change their lives, some akin to @worriedguy‘s points. The reaction is caused the same fears that generate assumptions and judgments about a person based on their apparent religion/beliefs is the source of this issue.

This is human nature, and the more we fight it, the more we will spin our wheels. The problem is the unwillingness to gain the understanding about something so that there is no fear around it.

Take the one example of the morning call to prayers, if I understood the purpose behind it, I would not mind. I used to live in a neighborhood with a church that chimed 3x/day: 6am, 12noon, and 6pm. Sometimes it woke me up in the morning, but I never minded because I chose not too; I took it as a sign that all was well. We all have the freedom to see things from a perspective of love and compassion rather than fear.

@Spider I live about 1/10 of a mile from a Catholic church whose bells chime almost daily. It doesn’t bother me. I don’t see why a call to prayer would be any different. GA

Mosques are already in my city, along with churches of all kinds, Jewish temples, Buddhist temples…I live right down the street from a Thai temple. The only time there are problems at/with houses of worship is when the bigoted and hateful decide to vandalize these places. This is so a non-issue.

I wouldn’t have a problem with it. I live on a military post. The amount of random noise on post can be insane if you let it get to you. There’s the various bugle calls during the day (usually early in the morning, then around 5pm, and again around 10pm), we also get to hear them test the emergency sirens every week (Friday’s at noon), and all of the live fire we hare from the range. The live fire at the range actually shakes my walls from time to time depending on what they are shooting. After adjusting to all of that, I would hardly notice the calls to prayer.

I think this is a phony issue. It is just xenophobia masquerading as a security concern. We have freedom of religion here in America, period. That means every religion.

@dpworkin Do you think people who would agree with you on that would continue that train of thought into things like Satanic worship?

They have no choice. “Congress shall make no law…”

Truth be told, I’d think it’s cool as heck. Mosques can be beautiful buildings.
But it would make me sad if they’d cleave to the tradition that non-Muslims aren’t allowed in. That would also be a bad idea when it comes to building up trust and goodwill.

@Facade
Do you think there are things wrong with Satanic worship that are not wrong with the other religions?
From what I hear, real life Satanists aren’t all that bad. They’re a bit like theological trolls, but they don’t go around ritually killing people or whatever the slasher films tell you.

At any rate the bottom line is that freedom of religion does not justify breaking laws, not for Satanists and not for anyone else. I think that adequately safeguards against any problem that could arise from religious freedom.

No, not at all.

I’m one of those poopers who would complain if a church or mosque moved into a neighborhood and rang bells every hour.
If I moved into a neighborhood with that noise already, I would not complain. It was my choice to move there.

@Fyrius I know very little about it, but in my mind (and most others) worshipping Satan is nothing positive. There are people who affiliate with other religions who do bad things as well, yes. But the initial premise of most religions is love.

@Facade: The problem I have with Satan worship myself is that Satan is an adversary to a very popular god. That seems less like an actual religion and more like sticking tit o the man to me.

@KatawaGrey Good point. Teenage rebellion gone awry.

I would have no problem with it. In fact I would be happy because it would mean I could see my sister and her kids more often.

I was gonna say it doesn’t bother me at all, but I read @worriedguy‘s response , and I think he put down an answer that is exactly how we should hopefully feel.

If the mosque congregation was going to start acting like authoritarian activists (similar to how some of them act in the middle east, and how some Christians of the “American Family Association” and “Christian Coalition” act… then keep them the hell out.

But if they move in, and really are good neighbors who live and let live, then they should be welcomed to the neighborhood.

In this town there are 7 street, 9 avenues and 7 or eight churches.

A mosque here would be impractical but I’d have no objections to it.

There is no synagogue either, but then again, I’m the only Jew in town as far as I know!

I like bells…...and calls to prayer…...sounds groovy.

I would have a problem, but I’d also have a problem if a synagogue or a church were being built in my area, because I think religion is teh dumbz.

I wouldn’t have a significant problem and obviously people should have the right to build religious buildings even if those religions are based on bronze-age mythology.

A mosque nearby would bother me just about as much as a temple or a church built nearby.
I am bothered that they believe any of that stuff in the first place.
But the Islam doesn’t bother me at a deeper level or anything. I’m not worried about the muslims in my area suddenly turning into suicide bombers once they have a place of worship. After all, I’m not a viewer of Fox news.

No. I happen to like the sound of prayers being called though I’m not religious. I’m American and believe in the American way to allow the religious to coexist here. Like others, I don’t want my choice to be non religious fussied with.

I understand the problem is that someone wants to build a mosque right next to the site of the former World Trade Center, also known as Ground Zero. That is what has some people up in arms.

There are issues in the central California valley, because some members of a Mosque there were arrested and charged by the FBI as spies.

Stories like that are the reason some people have objections.

There’s a Baptist church that is happy when American soldiers die, and says that God hates “fags”. Should we have a moratorium on churches?

No, as long as muezzins don’t use 300 watt loud speakers.