Majid Khan says Muslims who work in Henrico County experience hardship in having to drive to Chesterfield County for Friday noon prayers at the Islamic Center of Virginia.
The travel time asks too much of the worshippers and their employers, he said. And the Buford Road center, though it is accommodating north-of-the-river worshippers, does not have the long-term capacity to serve the entire region.
"It's just not possible for us to continue to go there," said Khan, an investor in a proposed Henrico mosque off Staples Mill Road.
Three years ago, the Henrico Board of Supervisors — with Pat O'Bannon and Frank Thornton dissenting — refused to rezone the property from office to residential for the house of worship.
The vacant 3.6-acre property on Impala Drive near Hermitage and Hilliard roads had failed to attract office development since 1984. This fact did not sway the board majority, who must be true believers in the sanctity of the county's land-use plan.
Since similar zoning changes have been made that allowed the establishment of churches elsewhere in the county, the board majority came off looking like hypocrites, religious bigots and non-believers in the Constitution.
Now this board, which deliberates in the region that is the birthplace of U.S. religious freedom, gets another chance to do the right thing in a nation where Muslim bashing has become a religion unto itself. Two high-profile examples are the reaction to the proposed Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan (inflammatorily misnamed the "Ground-Zero Mosque") and the protests over a new Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
During the recent hearing after which the Henrico Planning Commission recommended approval of the rezoning, Bob Leahey said nearby businesses "shouldn't have to change our way of operating just to be a good neighbor" and called the mosque "kind of an assault on the neighborhood."
Meanwhile, Sue Blake, who brought a DVD titled "Homegrown Jihad" to the hearing, described the mosque as possibly a place preaching hate and destruction.
Khan says he cannot control hate groups who are trying to disrupt the American way of life. But the longtime Henrico resident adds, "In every community, in every country, in every religion, there are good guys and there are bad guys."
American Muslims were not involved in 9/11, and no religion was held responsible when Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City. "We are ready to build bridges of understanding and come together and start a dialogue," Khan said.
In the face of vilification and rationalization, the Muslim investors — Henrico taxpayers — are patiently exercising due process in pursuit of a land use that would be less disruptive than an office building. They plan on making their case door-to-door, asking why exceptions made for Mennonites and Episcopalians aren't being made for them.
"Our best approach is to talk to people and make them understand our rights are important," Khan said.
Those rights are important to everyone, not just Muslims in search of a place to pray. If one group's rights are infringed upon, no one's are safe.
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