Ashley Hefnawy.2

Norwalk, CT- At approximately 5:00pm on Monday, September 27th a fight occurred in downtown Fairfield between two college students over religious accusations, which inherently shed light to the simmering religious tensions within the county over the new building proposal for a mosque within a residential neighborhood in Norwalk, CT.

Zach Mohamed, a 20-year-old Egyptian Muslim, and Steve, (whose last name could not be gathered from the scene) were responsible for the fight. The fight took place in Las Vetas café after Steve approached Mohamed and asked him if he was in fact an, “Ay-rab” to which Mohamed responded that he was an Egyptian Arab. A few words were exchanged, which ultimately led to Steve punching Mohamed, which Mohamed reciprocated with a punch back.

Mohamed, a resident of Norwalk, Connecticut, is a member in AIIAS, the Arabic Institute of Islamic and Arabic Studies. He is an active participant within the Arab community. According to friends of Mohamed’s, Steve attends Fairfield University as a medical student in the school of Arts and Sciences. He was unavailable for comment on the fight. Neither male was subject to police investigation, and the fight was left out of the authorities business.

This sort of occurrence is completely out of the ordinary in the middle of a town like Fairfield, Connecticut. The state is politically democratic, and according to government websites, several large cities within are ranked as the most liberal in the country.

A group by the name of Al Madany is responsible for the funding and plans to build a mosque on 127 Fillow Street, a residential neighborhood in Norwalk. Al Madany is an Islamic organization whose mission is to, “establish a community and disseminate information,” according to the group’s Facebook page, (the website has not been completed yet.) They also run a weekend Arabic and religious studies school for children.

Farhan Memon, a spokesperson from Al Madany, was able to give insight as to what the group’s plans included, with regards to the mosque operation. As of now, architectural plans have already been made. But there is a lack of approval from the neighborhood where this Mosque would be built, a community that consists of mainly single-family house owners.

According to Memon, families feel that the new Mosque will drive a lot of traffic to a largely residential neighborhood, where many of the families have young children who attend school in the area. Families argue that the Mosque will take up a lot of space on land for parking as well.

“I just don’t think that we’d be seeing the same issues if a church or synagogue was being proposed for town approval. I feel like there’s a lot of hesitation due to a bigger issue with Islam,” Mohamed said. “We just take it for granted in Connecticut, because everyone’s supposed to be so liberal. But I think religious discrimination definitely still exists.”

This kind of controversy raises the question as to whether or not Norwalk, and Fairfield County as a whole, is truly as liberal as it seems to others. Upon asking some other members of Al-Madany, opinions with regard to the matter were varied.

“I think that if this country’s situation with the Middle East wasn’t so rocky, we wouldn’t be seeing as much hesitation towards having this mosque built,” Nora Hefnawy, an Arabic school teacher for Al-Madany, said. “The neighborhood seems to be raising excuses with no merit behind them.”

“I understand their reasoning, but the truth is that we have all the facts we need to provide proper reasoning as to why this Mosque should be built,” Memon said, regarding the single-family house owners who populate the neighborhood. “They have based all of their disagreements off emotions; if they were to provide facts, it would be another story.”

“Parents have written up petitions, gotten teachers involved, and stuck signs in their lawn, [similar to election candidate signs] which say, ‘Keep 127 Fillow Street Residential,’” Memon said.

It became clear that it was not the community as a whole that was concerned though, merely just the neighborhood. From Memon’s standpoint, there seemed to be genuine support in the community of Norwalk as a whole, for the Mosque.

A public hearing was scheduled to occur last Wednesday, but was postponed until further notice.

Mohamed felt that the general Fairfield County community as a whole had respect towards Islam: “I think that there’s a certain amount of open-mindedness within every community, especially within Connecticut,” said Mohamed. “I do feel that it’s definitely a situation that some people won’t think much about until they actually have to face it personally. The prospect of seeing a Minaret, [the pointed tall post that protrudes from the Mosque] in the middle of a residential community for some is not ideal. It’s just sad to see in Connecticut.”