Posted on 05/20/2007 6:07:58 PM PDT by chopperman
(CBS/AP) TRENTON The founders of a Trenton mosque have sued in Superior Court in Mercer County to have their religious leader removed, claiming he is trying to make the congregation more fundamentalist.
The suit, filed by the International Muslim Brotherhood Inc., the mosque’s owner, as well as three founding members, claims that Imam Sabur Abdul Hakim has recently adopted stricter views of Islam and is planning to beam in lectures by satellite from a conservative sect in Saudi Arabia.
The suit also alleges that Hakim began changing religious practices at the Masjid As-Saffat mosque three years ago and appointed his son-in-law, Shalby Akbar Shalby, as “ameer” last August without an election by the congregants.
A message for Hakim’s lawyer, Eric Broadway, was not returned Sunday.
The mosque was founded in 1981 by local Muslims and state employees needing a place to pray and was open to all sects.
The board of trustees had set in place a practice of selecting a rotating slate of people for the mosque’s weekly Friday sermon.
In 2004, Hakim decided that he alone would decide who gave the Friday sermon, the suit alleges, and it’s usually a person who follows a strict doctrine associated with the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia.
This should be an interesting fight.
Boy, talk about a HOSTILE takeover!
Isn’t this the building at the end of Spring Street?
I don’t understand why a lawsuit is necessary. This is a private, religious organization, why don’t the members just tell him to leave? Or if the ‘Brotherhood’ group “OWNS” the mosque, then why don’t they tell him to leave? Talk about separation of church and state, how can the Superior Court fire the guy?
Its about time we listed all the Wahabis and Wahabi mosques that exist in our country.
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