Tennessee Mosque Opponents: Islam not a Real Religion
APP.com reports:
MURFREESBORO. TENN. — My God is better than your God.
That's the dispute at the heart of recent hearings in a lawsuit aimed at derailing the new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. What started as a zoning issue has turned into a fight over theology and the role of government in recognizing religion.
Mosque opponents say that Islam is not a real religion. They argued in a Rutherford County courthouse last week that the world's second-largest faith, with its 1.6 billion followers, is actually a political movement.
Opponents say local Muslims want to replace the Constitution with an Islamic legal code called Shariah law.
Joe Brandon Jr., a Smyrna,, Tenn., lawyer representing a group of mosque opponents, argued that the proposed mosque is not a house of worship. He said the Rutherford County Planning Commission erred when it approved the mosque.
Brandon wants an injunction stopping the mosque.
"Shariah law is pure sedition," said Brandon in his opening statement Monday.
Local officials said that of course Islam is a religion. They say the proposed mosque is like any other house of worship. Constitutional scholars say it isn't the government's business to decide which faiths are legitimate and which are not.
Local Muslims say the claim about Shariah law and political conspiracies is nonsense.
"I have been a Muslim all my life, and I've never heard about Shariah law," said Lema Sbentaty, a Middle Tennessee State University student who attended part of the hearings last week. "If this was true, who would want to be a Muslim?"
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