Gaffney Invades TN to Rail About Sharia
Ed Brayton does a good job as usual of nailing the essentials here.
Here’s what I don’t get. The lawsuit is supposed to be over the technical question of whether the local planning commission violated the state’s open meetings act when it approved the plan for the mosque. So why did they want to present testimony about the dangers of Islam? That has no bearing at all on the legal question in the case.
The judge is not going to rule on whether the mosque should be allowed to be built, he’s only going to rule on the open meetings question. So why would the judge even allow such testimony? It is totally irrelevant to the legal question under consideration. Quite bizarre.
They have no evidence at all tying this particular mosque to terrorism or extremism. The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has been in existence for decades, with about 250 families from the area as members. Hundreds of Muslims have been living peacefully in the Murfreesboro area without incident for as long as anyone can remember. They are a part of the larger community, working as doctors, lawyers, teachers, police officers, accountants and who knows what else. They are neighbors and friends and family to thousands of people in that community. But now that they want a larger building for their activities, they are suddenly the second coming of Osama Bin Laden and a threat? Nonsense.