Folsom abuzz over mosque

Sacramento Bee ^ | 8/25/5 | Jim Downing

[SmithL]

Sharleen Stafford didn't hear about the Islamic Society of Folsom's new 31,000-square-foot mosque until more than a month after the city approved it - too late for an appeal.

For the first time in her life, Stafford said, she wrote a furious letter to the mayor. "What is it going to do to our little community?" Stafford said last week.

Stafford, 50, said that she is concerned the mosque will snarl traffic in her Sibley Street neighborhood, and that she's angry at the city for not doing more to publicize its public hearings during the planning process.

But she also worries the mosque will be a security threat. "You can't but not (worry), with all that's going on in the world," she said.

The Islamic Society of Folsom has existed without much controversy for 13 years, but the mix of anxiety about terrorism by Muslim extremists and frustration with City Hall has made the mosque the talk of Folsom this summer.

Most of the society's 300 families were drawn to Folsom by jobs at Intel. The congregation's adult members are largely immigrants from India and Pakistan, but the group includes members with roots in Eastern Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

The planned light-green mosque at Levy Road and Sibley Street would be the 10th in the Sacramento region, but the first to be built in traditional Islamic style, with a dome and 70-foot-high minaret adorned with a crescent moon.

[hattend]

Will the people of Folsom have to listen to a call to prayer 5 times a day like they do in Michigan?

[pitinkie]

http://www.folsommasjid.com/

Trying to find out...