A tense meeting in the Village of Somers Monday put the Islamic religion under scrutiny as city officials tried to decide whether a piece of land should be rezoned so a mosque can be built there.
It had neighbors packing the public meeting for nearly two hours to have their voices heard.
"The Muslims and Islam religion has become radicalized and I don't want any part of it," said Richard, who did not give his last name.
A majority of people at the public hearing spoke out against building a mosque in Somers. The attorney for the group hoping to build the mosque says it would serve 25-30 families, and would go on land that was originally designated for farming.
"I think you are going to find out from the number of people who are going to come up and speak that there's very little support for this," said Mike Skalitzky.
Some people brought up issues of wanting the land to stay zone for agriculture, as well as fears of drainage issues. One man was openly booed for speaking up about freedom of religion.
"This was country was based on freedom of religion," said Ron Grimes. "Because if you ban this one when are you going to ban the next Catholic church or the Jewish synagogue?"
Finally, members of the Islamic community got up to address the crowd. One man, a retired neurosurgeon, spoke about living in the community for more than 50 years and being saddened by the comments he was hearing.
"It hurts my feelings, and I've served this community so well without regard for religion, race or creed," said Dr. Muhammad Rafiullah.
Another resident offered to provide their social security numbers for criminal background checks. One man simply introduced his family.
"I am from India," said Naseer Farooqi. "This is my wife...She has worked for the North Shore Bank for the past 20 years. Many of you may know her. My son here who has gone to medical school. He is over here. My daughter is already working for BP, I have a son who is an IT engineer."
They said they hoped any decision would be based on zoning issues, not based on religion. But Richard did not mince words on why he did not want the mosque.
"You can talk about your zoning, everything else. The bottom line is we don't want the Muslim community here," Richard said.
The planning board held off on a decision Monday night to meet again with the attorneys and city planners. They will likely vote on the issue in the next few months but no date has been set.
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