Meeting about Virginia mosque exposes deep divide

Washington Post ^ | 11/23/15 | Rachel Weiner

[markomalley]

For 27 years, members of the Islamic Center of Fredericksburg have lived in relative peace with their neighbors on a country road in rural Spotsylvania County.

At least until last week, when, during a community meeting about their plans to build a bigger mosque nearby, they found themselves defending their right to exist. The meeting was intended to address traffic concerns around the proposed religious center but instead was taken over by half a dozen angry protesters calling the Muslim residents terrorists.

The outbursts of hatred came amid rising calls across the country to pause or end resettlement of Muslim refugees in the United States. Fredericksburg and the counties surrounding it have become popular places for Middle Eastern refugees lured by low housing prices and available jobs. But the fast-growing area 50 miles south of Washington retains a conservative and rural character.

“You can see our problem,” Samer Shalaby said Friday before prayers, gesturing toward the rows of cars parked along a dirt road next to the center. A trustee of the Islamic Center and an engineer, Shalaby has lived in Fredericksburg for 30 years. When he arrived, he said, there were few traffic lights and even fewer Muslims.

(snip)

“Nobody, nobody, nobody wants your evil cult in this county,” a bearded, tattooed man who identified himself as a former Marine said to scattered applause, according to a video posted online by the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. “I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen, because you are terrorists.”

[paratrooper82]

I noticed that the liberal socialist old media did not care about the “The outbursts of hatred” directed at the Tea Party when ever they protested their government. In fact, at one town hall meeting a Union thug slapped a Tea Party member who was speaking to his representative during his time to speak!

Not a word about this kind of hatred from the media!

Maybe the Tea Party needs to start bombing population centers and shoot people randomly on the streets to get any respect from the old liberal socialist media, just like their Muslim Islamist refugees!

[Salamander]