South Valley Islamic Community Blog

New article about SVIC in SJ Mercury News June 14, 2007

Herhold: Bin Laden has no place in mosque debate

By Scott Herhold

Mercury News http://www.mercurynews.com/scottherhold/ci_6137329

Article Launched: 06/14/2007 01:33:17 AM PDT

Dr. M. Bakri Musa is a trim, smiling man of 63 who works as a surgeon in Gilroy and lives on a ranch in Morgan Hill with his wife, Karen. He has his own blog (http://bakrimusa.com) in which he writes thoughtfully about politics and economics in the developing world. Like the majority of Malaysians, he’s a Muslim. He’s also an American who treasures the freedom of the USA. He’s about as far from being a terrorist as I am.

Nonetheless, because of Osama bin Laden, Musa has to answer the stupid question about whether Muslims are prone to violence. As a leader in the South Valley Islamic Community, he’s part of an effort to build the “Cordoba Center,” a mosque and community center in San Martin.

Though it should never come to it – not in the USA, not in San Martin – the South County has just enough flag-waving yahoos to make the proposal controversial on its face. The Gilroy Dispatch ran an online poll that showed that 30percent of respondents believed the mosque should be denied because it’s Muslim.

If you believe some of the letter writers and correspondents, people like Musa (the Muslim version of “Moses”) are about to forcibly convert them or slay them. In this view, a mosque will unleash jihad.

So as Musa and I stood with the president of the Islamic community, Sal Akhter, at the site of their planned mosque – a 16-acre plot bordering Monterey Road just north of California Avenue – I had to ask him my own version of the stupid question. How did he react when he heard these predictions of violence?

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