الولايات المتحدة: ثلثي ولاية تينيسي يؤيدون حق المسلمين في بناء المساجد

كشف استفتاء عقدته جامعة "فاندربيلت" الأمريكية حول معرفة موقف أهالي ولاية "تينيسي" الأمريكية من حق الأقلية المسلمة في بناء دور العبادة - أن 62.6 % من المواطنين يؤيدون حق المسلمين في بناء المساجد أسوة بغيرهم من الأقليات الدينية، مقابل 37.4 % أكدوا حق الجهات المعنية في رفض السماح ببناء المساجد.

ويأتي هذا الاستفتاء في أعقاب الجدل الذي أُثير حول بناء مسجد ومركز "مورفيزبرو" الإسلامي العام الماضي، الذي انقسم المجتمع الأمريكي حوله بسبب المفاهيم المغلوطة والمعلومات الخاطئة عن الإسلام والمسلمين.

الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

The statewide poll by Vanderbilt University revealed that 62.6 percent of respondents believe Muslims should have the same rights as other groups to build houses of worship, while 37.4 percent believe local communities should be able to prohibit construction of mosques.

Eric Bell, a Murfreesboro resident and filmmaker who is working on a documentary about the mosque controversy, said he wasn't surprised by the poll results.

"I have found that a lot of your everyday, mainstream people in Murfreesboro are afraid to speak out against the more vocal, xenophobic people," Bell said.

Murfreesboro attracted national attention last year after Rutherford County's planning commission approved construction of a 52,000-square-foot mosque by the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. The organization said it had outgrown the site where it had operated for more than two decades.

Questions about the planning commission's decision spurred a lawsuit, which was unsuccessful in a Rutherford County court. Arsonists burned excavating equipment at the mosque construction site, and protesters rallied in the streets — all of it against the backdrop of an election season.

John Geer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt, said the new findings show a more measured reality.

"Vocal minorities have a right to be vocal," he said. "But the people who make noise aren't necessarily representative of the typical person in the state. Public opinion looks a lot more extreme in the absence of polling data".