Plans for Islamic cemeteries triggering anti-Muslim sentiment

SOMERVILLE, Tenn. -- The Muslim Society of Memphis was looking for a quiet place to bury their dead and found an unused sod farm about 20 miles east of the city.

But angry neighbors are protesting the proposed Muslim cemetery, saying it could be used as a staging ground for terrorists, or that it could spread disease from unembalmed bodies.

"We know for a fact that Muslim mosques have been used as terrorist hideouts and centers for terrorist activities," John Wilson, a local farmer, told the in Fayette County planning commission last month.

It's not the first time American Muslims have faced opposition when trying to build a cemetery or a mosque, which are often the first Islamic institutions ever established in some towns.

Rabiah Ahmed of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said she was not surprised by the cemetery critics near Memphis. "It's not shocking, but it is discouraging," she said from the council's headquarters in Washington.

Islamic groups have noticed more protests against proposed mosques and cemeteries since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Generally, opponents complain about potential damage to the environment, lowered property values and traffic congestion. But the critics also associate Muslims with extremists and terrorism.

Opposition to opening a mosque in an abandoned office building in Voorhees, N.J., included an anonymous flier saying Islamic worshippers might include "extremists and radicals."

Arguing over a proposed Islamic cemetery near Atlanta went on for more then a year before officials in Gwinnett County, Ga., approved preliminary plans for it.

Clarity of rhetoric

But the Tennessee squabble stands out for the clarity of the anti-Muslim rhetoric.

People whose comments were recorded at the planning commission meeting in November say America is at war with Islamic extremists and even point out that Tennessee Valley Authority power lines crossing the county would be prime targets for terrorists.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you may think this is farfetched, but that is what the Jewish people thought when the Nazis started taking a small foothold, a little at a time, in their community," Wilson said.

In a later interview, Wilson said he and his neighbors are primarily worried about the value of their property, but he also said news reports about America's enemies can't be ignored.

"I don't think anyone who has read the newspaper or seen what investigations have gone on about other mosques would not have those kinds of concerns," he said.

Belinda Ghosheh, an owner of the property, said a committee meeting of the Fayette County Commission drew such a hostile crowd she feared for her safety. One woman, she said, yelled, "We don't need bin Laden's cousins in our neighborhood."

Ghosheh and her husband, a native of the Middle East who has been a U.S. citizen for more than 20 years, live in neighboring Shelby County.

"These people would possibly have been our neighbors if we had decided to build on that property," she said. "If this doesn't go through, we're still getting rid of it. I would never live out there now."

Annette Cutliff, a planning commission member who voted for the cemetery, was at that meeting, too.

"When I walked to my car, I looked over my shoulder," Cutliff said. "I was concerned because emotions were running high."

Traditionally, Muslims do not embalm their dead, and some critics say the cemetery could be a health hazard.

But Muhammad Zaman, a physician and associate professor of medicine with the University of Tennessee, said other religions also reject embalming, which uses chemicals that can spread into the soil.

"The decomposition of the human body does not add anything different than what it is," Zaman said.

The proposed site -- five acres of a 27-acre tract -- is now zoned rural residential. One neighbor, Herbert Howell, said a cemetery should not be allowed regardless of who would be buried there.

"We are not at war with all the Islamics," Howell said. "I have no problem with who they are or what they are. If it was a filling station, I wouldn't want that either."

The Muslim society needs a "special use" zoning exemption, and the planning commission, which is appointed, approved it. But the committee of the elected county commission disapproved.

"They were very concerned about votes," Cutliff said.

The application was withdrawn before a vote by the full county commission, but Memphis businessman Mohammad Halimah said the Islamic society is considering several options, including refiling the request.

In the meantime, Halimah said, he and several colleagues are trying to meet with area residents individually to discuss their concerns.

No zoning change is needed for a cemetery on church grounds, so building a mosque on the site is also a possibility. One colleague is looking for land elsewhere.

"Our religion stresses acceptance by our neighbors," Halimah said. "Even if the law is on our side, religiously we have to be careful. We have to take the advice of our attorney and the advice of our religious and spiritual leader."

Halimah, a U.S. citizen with four children born in the United States, said more than said 15,000 Muslims live in the Memphis area and a small private cemetery they use now is running out of room.

Cemetery critics fail to understand, Halimah said, that Islam is a religion of peace and Islamic terrorists are extremists.

"Like racial remarks, sometimes they're based on ignorance," he said.

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