Brookfield council approves mosque

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Common Council gave final approval Tuesday for construction of a mosque, the first in Waukesha County.

The council voted unanimously to approve a conditional use permit for the project.

"We're elated" said Mushir Hassan, a physician and secretary of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, which has been working to build a mosque in the Milwaukee area's western suburbs for more than a decade.

"The unanimous vote reflects the tremendous hard work that has gone into this project and the positive relationship we have with the city. We've done our best to make this open and transparent. And that will continue."

Groundbreaking is expected this summer on a 13,000-square-foot mosque and community center on Pheasant Drive east of Calhoun Road.

The Islamic Society estimates 100 Islamic families live within a four-mile radius of the site - many of them Brookfield residents who have turned out at city meetings, including Tuesday's, to advocate for the project.

The mosque had garnered support from individuals and religious groups, including the Brookfield-Elm Grove Interfaith Network and the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee.

Longtime Brookfield resident Rafat Arain urged the council to approve the mosque, saying she has long opened her Muslim home to her neighbors in a gesture of friendship, but that the community should meet their Muslim neighbors half way.

"They have to get to know us," Arain said, clearly hurt and angered by the Hartland man's comments.

"It goes both ways. If I open my heart to them, they have to do it too."

City officials have said repeatedly - and again Tuesday - that the project met all of Brookfield's land-use requirements, the only criteria it could legally consider.

And its Plan Commission unanimously recommended approval of the permit last week.

Brookfield Mayor Steven Ponto called the opposition a vocal minority and said he was proud of the way the city handled the controversy.

"The process has been a very open one," Ponto said. "I know this is a difficult issue. . . . But I think Brookfield is a sophisticated community that understands that we live in a diverse society."

The local Islamic community has been working for more than a decade to build a mosque in the western Milwaukee County suburbs. In the interim, the community has held its Friday congregational prayers at Waukesha and Elmbrook memorial hospitals. The Islamic Society reduced the size of the building to address concerns about increased traffic on N. Calhoun Road, staff said.

It also agreed to install a right turn lane to ease traffic, and not to seek an expansion of the project until and unless North Calhoun is widened at a later date.

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