Does religion play role in Lilburn mosque controversy?

At a packed city Planning Commission meeting last week that was moved to Lawrenceville to accommodate the crowd, about a half-dozen speakers framed the issue as a land-use matter involving traffic, parking and noise. They hammered the point, they said, despite goading from the media to speak about religion.

Angel Alonso, a neighbor who opposes the rezoning, said his three-bedroom house on Hood Road is a sign of his religious acceptance. It’s filled with small Buddhas, replicas of Hindu temples, even dragons intended to ward off evil spirits.

“To say it’s about religion is bull,” said Alonso, a 15-year-resident. “If they were putting in a Catholic church or Baptist church with a cemetery, I’d have the same problem with it. I don’t want it in my neighborhood, plain and simple.”

The Lilburn City Council will vote on the matter at Wednesday night's meeting, which was also moved to Lawrenceville, deciding whether to go along with the Planning Commission's recommendation to deny the rezoning application.

Wasi Zaidi, a founding member of the 11-year-old congregation, said he doesn't believe everyone in the community sees it as a rezoning issue.

"There are a lot of good people, but there also are some who don't like Muslims," Zaidi said. "They don't want us in their backyards.

"Our mosque already exists there, so we have a right to stay there anyway, legally," he said, referring to two 2,000-square-foot buildings on the same property.

Ninety families worship on 1.4 acres of land owned by the congregation. The group wants to buy an additional 6.5 acres to build the mosque for the city's growing Muslim population. Lilburn Mayor Diana Preston, who owns four of those acres, said she will not attend Wednesday night's meeting to avoid a conflict of interest.

Yusof Burke, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Georgia, said even though Muslims are no longer strangers to Georgia, mosques do attract opposition for religious reasons. There are more than 35 mosques and an estimated 80,000 Muslims in metro Atlanta, he said.

"From the Muslim perspective, if this was a church, [the rezoning] wouldn't be so difficult. It has to do with the issues we're having in the Muslim community," Burke said. "But at the same time, I can definitely see this as a land-use issue. This seems to be outside the city's [land-use] plan."

Zaidi said the proposed mosque will be state of the art, with soundproofing, and will help beautify the city.

Besides, he said, "if you live in an old house for 50 years, you have the right to build a new house for your family."

If you go

What: Special called Lilburn City Council meeting

When: 7:30 p.m. today

Where: Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville