Trouble in Fairfield County

Ashley Hefnawy

Norwalk, CT- At approximately 5:00 pm on a seemingly quiet Monday night, a café known as Las Vetas situated in downtown Fairfield, was the troubling scene for a fist fight between 20-year-old Egyptian Muslim, Zach Mohamed, and college student, Steve, over the subject of Mohamed’s Arab descent.

After having the opportunity to talk to Mohamed, and a couple of friends of his that were witnesses, the consensus was unanimous. Steve, (whose last name was not given) initiated the fight, after he approached Zach and asked him if he was in fact, an “Ay-rab.”

“I’d never seen him in my life. At first I couldn’t believe he’d asked me that. I turned to him, and said ‘I am Egyptian, yes, I am an Arab.’ I couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying, but there was a lot of ignorant bullshit about Arabs,” said Mohamed.

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.

“I turned my back to him, and said to one of my friends, ‘God, what a retard.’ Next thing I knew, I felt a hard punch in the back of my head, so I turned around and socked him in the eye,” said Mohamed. “It wasn’t even really a fight after that, because my friends grabbed hold of me and had to carry me out so I wouldn’t hit him again.”

Steve was unavailable to comment on any matters pertaining to the fight. According friends of Mohamed’s, Steve attends Fairfield University as a medical student in the school of Arts and Sciences.

“This is the kind of stuff you’d hear about somewhere else, but I’d never expect it from the youth of a place as liberal as Connecticut,” according to Mohamed’s friend, Mike Fabrizi, who witnessed the entire incident take place. Fabrizi is also 20 years old, and attends University of Bridgeport with Mohamed.

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. There is no direct source to accredit the statement that Connecticut is seen by most as a generally liberal state. However, several large cities and areas that comprise Connecticut, according to government websites, are ranked as the most liberal in the country.

“I feel like it’s just coincidental that this fight happened when it did, because there is a huge controversy in one specific neighborhood within Norwalk, about the possibility of building a mosque,” commented Zach.

According to Mohamed, 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.)

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, but Memon voiced his opinion against that reasoning.

“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. The neighbors have based all of their disagreements off emotions; if they were to provide facts, it would be another story,” said Memon.

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.

“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,’” said Memon.

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

“The only reason there is controversy in this neighborhood about the Mosque being built, is because we want to build it on a plot of land which is technically on residential ground. If we want to do this, we have to get a special permit, which involves a process,” said Memon.

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

“We found that there were minor flaws in the application that were made on our part. We also wanted to make corrections to architectural plans,” said Memon. In Memon’s opinion, the Mosque was definitely going to be built one way or another, as long as all the paperwork was filed correctly.

Upon being asked whether or not 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.”