Lilburn residents mad over mosque

Associated Press

Plans to build a mosque to house an expanding Muslim community are causing outcry in Lilburn by residents who argue the large facility will disturb their small-town way of life.

A founder of the 11-year-old local congregation of Dar-E Abbas says the 10,000-square-foot mosque will be a national showplace and will include a special Muslim cemetery.

But residents near the property at U.S. Highway 29 and Hood Road are poised to protest a rezoning to allow the mosque, a cemetery and recreation elements.

Resident Allan Owen is encouraging his neighbors to stand against the project at an Oct. 22 Planning and Zoning Commission hearing.

He says the neighborhood is peaceful and the big facility will disturb that.

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Information from: Gwinnett Daily Post, http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com