Hypocrisy

The community I live in is labelled an "unincorporated area" within a township.    Every morning, when I drive to the train station, I take the two main roads through our community.  In the 10 minutes that I'm driving, I pass 6 churches (I think there are a total of 12 in the community, including a Greek Orthodox church, one with services in Chinese and one with services in Korean), two synagogues (including the one where I am a member), a Hindu temple and a mosque.
In other words, I live in a very diverse community.


Funny thing is . . . The mosque has been there since 1993, but I didn't know it existed until just a few weeks ago.


The mosque doesn't look like a house of worship.  The congregation has been using an old residence  located on the main road through the community.  Coincidentally, this house is right next door to the Hindu temple. 

They want to tear down the house and buikd a real mosque, one with a dome and all the features you'd expect in a religious edifice.





The other day I got an email from the "concerned citizens of [unincorporated area]" protesting the expansion of the mosque.  They complained about the noise level, size of the parking lot, height of the dome, etc.  We were urged to protest at the zoning board hearing.

I had to wonder, where did the concerned citizens get my email address?

And then I had to wonder, where were the concerned citizens last year, when my synagogue asked for permits and variances in order to expand our building?



Or when the other synagogue got permits and variances in order to double the size of their building?



Know how a lot of communities have an unofficial website, a place for local news and announcements?   There was a short article about the mosque and the "concerned citizens". 


One "concerned citizen" who was quoted in the article . . . spearheaded the fundraising for our synagogue expansion last year.