Gaffney and friend

Attorneys representing opponents of the construction of an Islamic community center in Murfreesboro appeared in Chancery Court Monday morning.

Plaintiffs asked Chancellor Robert E. Corlew III to impose an injunction on any further construction on the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro claiming approval did not provide adequate public comment and that its members will impose Sharia Law on Murfreesboro residents.

“Why would we give any religion the right to cancel our rights under the United States Constitution,” Plaintiff’s Attorney Joe Brandon Jr. said in opening statements to the court. “If the Planning Commission had approved this for Osama bin Laden, would they still feel there should be no public hearing?”

Plaintiffs called former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, Frank Gaffney, to the stand and asked the court to enter him as an expert on Sharia Law. “I don’t hold myself out as an expert on Sharia Law,” Gaffney told the court on the witness stand. “But I have talked a lot about that as a threat.”

Under questioning by attorney for the plaintiffs, Gaffney described Sharia Law and the dangers it poses to communities across the nation. “Sharia (law) is the enemy-threat doctrine we face today,” Gaffney said.

Murfreesboro Post, 27 September 2010

A newly-formed group of local citizens concerned about teachings under Islam’s Shariah Law called for the imam of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro to sign a Pledge of Friendship Friday.

The Patriot Alliance of Rutherford County called a press conference at Grace Baptist Church on Bradyville Pike, next door to the site of the Islamic Center’s new construction site.

The Pledge of Friendship asks local Imam Ossama Bahloul to declare, among other things, banning the teaching of Redda Law, the part of Shariah Law that “allows the killing of Muslims who leave Islam,” the killing of homosexuals, and not to allow the facility to be used for fundraising or teachings that contradict the U.S. Constitution and other national laws.

The pledge was based on a document presented to the imam in of the mosque in Temecula, Ca., earlier in the week, said Lou Ann Zelenik, the group’s spokesperson, who also ran in the Republican primary for the Congressional seat to be vacated Rep. Bart Gordon. “I think it’s important we remain unified across the nation,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of evangelical pastors affiliated with the group was Pastor Darryl Whaley of Kingdom Ministries Worship Center in Walter Hill. He said the group was invited to attend an event to promote peace and tolerance earlier this month at the Islamic Center, but that the clergy did not have time to consult with their congregation on a week’s notice.

He said that even though the pastors respect the rights of Muslims to pray and practice their religion, “we continue to have fundamental differences in faith and practice,” and did not want their congregations to be confused by “joining hands under the banner of tolerance and religious freedom.”

The Tennessean, 24 September 2010

See also the WGNS report which reproduces the Patriot Alliance’s list of demands.

Imam Bahloul is also required to renounce “Shariah doctrine which justifies violence and abuse of women and children” and to refrain from teaching the doctrine of jihad, on the grounds that it compels Muslims to “engage in war so that Islam will dominate the world”. And, as we all know, “when Islam becomes dominant, Non-Muslims are offered three options: to convert to Islam, to pay Jizya (a humiliating tax), or to be killed”. Who would want that fate to befall the citizens of Murfreesboro?

But don’t get the idea that the Patriot Alliance of Rutherford County is insensitive to the needs of minority ethno-religious communities. Not at all. They insist that Imam Bahloul should also recognise that “the Islamic teaching that Muslims must ‘fight and kill all Jews before the end of days’ is totally unacceptable”.

Update:  See also “Rutherford Co. religious leaders unite in support of mosque”, WKRN, 24 September 2010