Much of the information in this article is summarized from this CNN news story:
Recently an Imam bought a 135 acre parcel of land 40 miles southeast of Atlanta in Newtown county to build a large mosque complex including a park, housing, cemetery, and an Islamic school, all across the street from a Baptist church with an adjacent cemetery.
Initially he was able to obtain approval from the county, but eventually word got out about the plans and caused an uproar in the local community.
In response to the uproar, county officials passed a moratorium on the construction of all houses of worship to further study issues with its impact on the community under the guise of zoning issues.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the executive director of the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said, “This wouldn’t have happened if this was a Protestant church. … This won’t stand up in the court of public opinion, much less a public court.”
Towns frequently resort to using zoning rules to stop new Islamic facilities from coming to their areas, and the Obama administration has been forcing Mosques on such communities that do not want them through legislative actions from the Department of Justice.
Over 300 people attended a pair of town meetings voicing their opinions about it.
A resident Joy Thomas said, “As United States citizens we don’t need people that don’t want to go by our laws. What are they actually going to be doing there at the mosque?”
CAIR says it has documented over 40 cases where local communities were opposed to proposals for Mosques between 2009 and 2015, and it has documented 40 incidents in which mosque proposals faced interference from communities.
CAIR is a Muslim advocacy group in the United States that is known for its political activism among Muslims in America, having an innocuous facade while also being notorious for its connections to Muslim extremism and terrorist groups. The website http://www.anti-cair-net.org/ is a comprehensive resource documenting issues with the organization.