Update 2/09/08: Here is another good article on this topic at Red Maryland blog. Be sure to read the comment from a Walkersville resident.
Last night, the Board of Zoning Appeals of Walkersville, in Frederick County, MD turned down the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s request to make a special exception and allow the construction of a worship and convention center on 224 acres adjacent to town.
The annual convention of the AMC could draw 10,000 or more people to the town of about 5000 clogging roads and putting pressure on services. Up until now this Pakastani Muslim splinter group had held its convention in a convention venue near Dulles Airport with all the normal amenities of such a facility–bathrooms, parking, water, hotel rooms—so it has always puzzled me why they needed a large piece of farmland for a one time a year event.
The Frederick Post has this account of last night’s proceedings. The article begins:
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will have to look for another site for its worship and recreational center.
As I sat in on one of the deliberations this week, I thought every little town in America needs to have its zoning in good order if a community wishes to avoid having a large separate community set up within its confines.
Call me an Islamophobe but I never once heard the AMC disavow Shariah law for themselves. Separate Shariah law is actually being considered in Great Britain and if we are to dodge that bullet we need to be alert to its possible establishment here.
If I’m wrong and the AMC has publically disavowed Shariah law, please send me a comment with a link to that official statement.