Murfreesboro mosque cemetery approved

MURFREESBORO — The Rutherford County Board of Zoning Appeals approved the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro cemetery request Wednesday night.

“We have a cemetery,” ICM Imam Ossama Bahloul said after the 3-2 vote while many members of his congregation and supporters exchanged hugs.

“Now we can die,” ICM board Chairman and founder Essam Fathy quipped following the BZA debating the public hearing issue for more than two hours.

The past month, the board deferred a decision in a 3-2 vote following a long public hearing and asked the ICM to seek third-party studies to see if burials without casket and vaults are safe for ground water. The Islamic Center was also asked to study whether the Veals Road entrance and nearby Veals and Bradyville Pike intersection could handle funeral traffic.

Murfreesboro attorney John Green on behalf of the ICM insisted that past studies show ample soils exist for the burials. He also said having a funeral and burial at the center will cause less traffic impact than a burial elsewhere.

Board member Joe Meshotto, who had voted to defer before, called for approval with five conditions:

1.the ICM keep records of where the burials are located;

2. the 1.5-acre cemetery is limited to 1,500 burials;

3. the grave markers be limited to being a foot in height, which the ICM has proposed;

4. permit ends should the property be sold for a nonreligious use;

5. the graves be at least 5-foot deep.

“We don’t have a lot of laws that govern cemeteries,” Meshotto said.

Bahloul, the ICM religious leader, said after the meeting that he has no problem with the conditions.

“I don’t see issues,” Bahloul said. “There is no problem. As long as we have the cemetery, the restrictions are no big deal, and we’ll take it. We are not in a game. We care about the safety of everyone.”

If people have a valid safety concern, the ICM will address it, he said.

“Our children play there,” said Bahloul, whose congregation also has built a basketball court and a playground.

In addition to Meshotto’s support, BZA Chairman Zane Cantrell and Jerry Sartain voted in favor of the cemetery.

Cantrell said supporting the ICM request is the right thing to do.

“The staff is telling us that it complies with all state and local regulations,” said Cantrell, noting that the BZA must respect the “religious freedom we have in this country.”

“If we turn this down, there’s really no defense in your heart, no defense in your mind and no legal defense,” Cantrell said.

County Planning Director Doug Demosi said the ICM cemetery plan is in compliance with county zoning, as well as state laws that allow burials without caskets or vaults at private cemeteries.

BZA members Keith Bratcher and Joe Crowell, who had voted to defer the month before, opposed the cemetery.

Crowell said he’s worried the ICM plans to bury without caskets and vaults could pose a threat to ground water. He noted he worries about his own well water on his farm in Christiana being safe near Miller Cemetery.

After hearing ICM member Lema Sbenaty suggest that BZA members and others against the cemetery were not comfortable with Islam, Crowell insisted his position has nothing to do with religion and noted that the board had deferred a decision about a church cemetery in 2012 that also had people bringing up concerns, including flood plain issues along Burnt Knob Road.

“I’m not a racist in any way,” said Crowell, who also asked ICM members if they’d be willing to let him be buried there.

Imam Bahloul said his congregation would welcome Crowell “to get buried with us.”

The BZA sat through passionate speeches from people on both sides of the issue, including Darrell Whaley, a Milton resident and local church pastor.

“I have never buried a person that wasn’t in a casket with a vault over it,” said Whaley, who contends the ICM should have been required to produce new studies on whether the soils can handle the cemetery plan, as well as the traffic issue. “It needs to be done.”

Resident Sally Wall questioned why the county would allow a different burial tradition.

“My great-great-grandmother (Mary Searcy) was the first white woman buried in Rutherford County,” Wall said.

She also complained about how the ICM obtained approval to build its center in May 2010 from the Rutherford County Regional Planning Commission “without due process.”

The BZA also learned from ICM critic Lou Ann Zelenik that plaintiffs led by Kevin Fisher, who are suing the county on a charge of approving the ICM without providing adequate public notice, filed a request for a temporary restraining order with the Tennessee Supreme Court to prevent a decision on the cemetery.

BZA attorney Josh McCreary told the board members the court had not ruled on the restraining order, based on the plaintiffs’ intentions to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I don’t think a restraint would affect what you did tonight (Wednesday),” McCreary said.

The attorney also told the BZA that the Tennessee Religious Freedom Act stipulates the government place no burden on the free practice of religion. Turning down a request for a religious purpose must be based on statutory law or zoning regulations and shown to be related to the potential impact in question, he said.

The BZA also heard from ICM supporters, including Jim Nunnery, a Murfreesboro physician who told the board the burials without embalming fluid, caskets and vaults will be safer for the environment.

“There is no contamination of the soil,” he said. “If you are going to have a cemetery, that’s the best way.”

The BZA also heard an appeal from 9-year-old ICM member Jannah Ahmed.

“I was born here, and I want to die here,” she said. “And I want to be buried here.”

(tennessean.com)

Tags: approved, cemetery, Murfreesboro mosque

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