Divisive Issues

By Jay Tokasz, *Incident worries members of mosque* - Buffalo News - Buffalo, NY, USA
Thursday, September 2, 2010

Members of an Orleans County mosque suspect that growing anti- Muslim sentiment—stirred up by a raging debate over a planned Islamic Center in Manhattan — played a role in recent harassment, including a gunshot blast, outside their building in the Town of Carlton.

“I’m sure,” said Bilal Huzair, a member of the World Sufi Foundation Mosque on Fuller Road. “Everything that happens in the mass media fuels everything.”

Jacob Zimmerman also senses a connection between the heavily covered controversy in New York City and recent events in tiny Carlton, where the entire population of the town could fill a single Manhattan apartment building.

“The way that Islam has been portrayed by the media, a tone has been set,” said Zimmerman.
The presence of mosques and the building of new mosques have become divisive issues in several communities across the country in recent months, as well-organized opposition groups have popped up, often alongside “tea party” political activists, said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Incidents such as the one in Carlton are part of a disturbing uptick in examples of what the council and other Muslim groups call Islamophobia.

“It comes in an atmosphere of near hysteria regarding mosques and American Muslims, mainly generated by the manufactured controversy over the Islamic center in Manhattan,” said Hooper.

Congregants of the World Sufi Foundation Mosque also maintained that a more concerted response by law enforcement might help ward off future problems at the mosque, which has been a frequent target of vandals over the years.

“The bigger concern is, when this does come up again, can we rely on authorities to come help us?” asked Zimmerman.

Law enforcement has responded to complaints in the past, but “that response is never kind of up to par,” he added. “They seem to think it’s OK to write it off as young men being reckless.”

Members remained frustrated at how their complaints were handled Friday and Monday.
Friday, a passenger in Huzair’s car called police asking for help when two vehicles — recognized as the same ones that had been outside the mosque harassing members on earlier occasions — began aggressively tailgating, with high beams on, as Huzair drove toward Albion.

Huzair said he earlier had driven past a parked Orleans County Sheriff’s Office car, but deputies weren’t able to catch the tailgaters in the act.

Monday, a congregant went outside the mosque during nightly prayers to confront teenagers in two vehicles who were honking their horns and yelling obscenities. One of the teens also fired a shotgun, according to sheriff’s deputies.

One of the vehicles hit the member, David Bell, who suffered a cut to his thumb and a concussion, according to Huzair. Members later caught up with the two SUVs and were able to block them from leaving the area while they called authorities. Deputies didn’t show up until 40 minutes later, they said. Eventually, five male teenagers from Holley were charged with disrupting a religious service, a misdemeanor.

One of the teens, Mark Vendetti, 17, additionally was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the shotgun firing.

The Sheriff’s Office sent out a news release on the arrests at about 1 p. m. Tuesday.

But Huzair said he suspected the alleged crimes might have been ignored if the congregation hadn’t contacted some media outlets in Rochester early Tuesday morning.

“They took our complaint more seriously only after the fact that media was present,” said Huzair.

The arrests have since become a national story.

Sheriff Scott D. Hess did not respond to three messages left by The Buffalo News on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Orleans County District Attorney Joseph Cardone said Wednesday he was aware of the Muslim group’s concerns about the Sheriff’s Office’s response. The sheriff was in a better position to handle those questions, said Cardone, who didn’t know all of the details about when deputies were called and when they responded.

“I know that Sheriff Hess is taking this thing extremely seriously,” said the district attorney. “It could be that there was some delay.”

But only two deputies may have been on duty at night, said Cardone, and if they were in the southern part of the county at the time, it could have taken 30 to 40 minutes to get to the northern part.

The district attorney said his office is taking the case seriously and preparing to press further charges, including a likely vehicular assault charge.

“There’s orders of protection [in place],” he said. “We feel the situation is under control. We’ve spoken to some of the parents, and they’re appalled by what [their kids] did.”

A national Islamic lobby and civil rights group has called on authorities to consider hate crime charges in the case.

Hooper said the Council on American-Islamic Relations aimed to “make sure these types of incidences aren’t just swept under the rug and put in the category of youthful exuberance.”

Cardone labeled the actions of the teenagers “complete, stupid ignorance” that may have resulted from knowledge of Islam gleaned only from television coverage of issues such as the Manhattan mosque the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Orleans County is a small agricultural county, a Christian community with kids that have grown up in that type of environment. These kids have grown up with not a lot of Muslims in their life,” he said. “It just comes from a lack of knowledge of the Muslim faith.”

The World Sufi Foundation Mosque was established in 1974 and counts several Americanborn converts to Islam as members. It is one of many small Sufi groups that set up in rural parts of the country and practice a more mystical form of Islam.

“They’re quite often made up of converts to Islam,” said Hooper. “They’ll find an out-of-the- way community because they want to live a quiet existence.” The World Sufi Foundation Mosque consists primarily of professionals, including doctors, professors and engineers, said Huzair.

It is known in Orleans County for sponsoring orphans from war-torn areas of the world and has worked with several churches in that endeavor.

But for years, the converted farmhouse has been commonly referred to among locals as “the cult house.” Its members insist they do nothing cultish and have nothing to hide from the public.

“There’s no big secret about it,” said Zimmerman. “We have a humble rural community here. We keep to ourselves and mind our own business.”

The mosque has been a target of vandals more frequently since Sept. 11, 2001, said Zimmerman. A few years ago, a separate group of teenagers was charged with setting a fence on fire — a case that Cardone’s office prosecuted.

But members said previous incidents were never as hostile as what occurred Friday and Monday. “There is some level of fear,” said Huzair. “However, there is a feeling that the police will do something this time.”

[Picture: Oak Orchard River, Lake Alice; Orleans County, NY. Photo: Wiki.]