Source/Credit: Fox News | WLUK-TV
By Lindsay Veremis | October 14, 2010
Ahmadi Muslim group holds informational meeting
OSHKOSH - A local Muslim group wants to build a Mosque on Oshkosh's west side, across the street from Oshkosh West High School.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community plans to buy and convert the former Seefeld Funeral Home on Eagle Street into a worship place and community center.
Hoping to ease concerns, community members opened up to potential neighbors at a Thursday meeting.
"We have been in Oshkosh for 20 years, but it just happens that now we've found a property," Community President Khurram Ahmad said.
Fielding questions from a largely cordial crowd of about 50, the group told of its plans for the site.
"Holy days like Ramadan what could take place?" one man asked.
Ahmed says neighbors can expect daily prayer, a Friday service and a number of other events at the mosque. Things the 45 member group now does in a cramped basement.
"It's getting difficult to manage with all the requirements of a community," Ahmad explained. "So we've been looking for a property, aggressively we can say about five years."
The Seefeld site is in a busy part of the city, with Oshkosh West High School across the street and the district office and several parks nearby. But some are still concerned the mosque will be disruptive.
"The parking lot really touches a lot of the neighboring homes and it would affect the peace and privacy of the area," Reverend David Pagel with Immanuel Lutheran Church said.
The group knows many mosques have been opposed, but says it will be respectful of the community and takes a strong stance against terrorism.
Patricia Hughes of Oshkosh agreed the group seems peaceful, but says she doesn't trust the religion.
"There were small mosques that started in New York and in Germany and in Paris, they're infiltrating," she said.
A former New Yorker in the crowd saw it differently and praised the meetings respectful tone.
"I am so very proud of all of this and I'm not very proud of New York," Susan Reed now of Oshkosh said.
The mosque proposal now goes before the city plan commission, but the Ahmadiyya Muslims say it's the opinion of the community that matter most.
"You know we're your neighbors, our children go to the same school and mostly we speak the same language," Ahmad said.
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