BROWN: Muslim group buys church — but can’t get permit to pray

Mark Brown

@MarkBrownCST | email


When is an old church no longer a suitable place for Americans to come together to pray?

In the southwest suburban village of Plainfield, the answer seems to be: when Muslims want to do the praying.

In about as clear-cut a case of religious discrimination as you’re going to find, the Plainfield village board this past week denied a zoning permit to a Muslim group that purchased a former Christian church building with plans of using it as a mosque.

Naturally, opponents have dressed up their intolerance with the usual NIMBY excuses about traffic and parking. They’re not fools.

But everyone knows the score. This is being driven by fear and prejudice and the misguided mindset of “keeping out terrorists.”

“Absolutely, 100 percent,” Zaki Basarath said when I asked if he and the other organizers of the would-be Plainfield Community Center believed they were facing discrimination over their Muslim faith.

What’s funny about that is that Basarath’s small but growing group has operated for a decade in Plainfield — without fanfare or interference — as the Islamic Foundation of Southwest Suburbs.

For the past eight of those years, they’ve conducted prayer services from a nondescript storefront in a strip mall along Illinois Rte. 59 on the south end of Plainfield — tucked between a tattoo parlor and tanning parlor on one side and a Marine recruiting office and Indian grocery on the other.

It’s not surprising then that the group would be looking to expand into a more suitable space, nor is it a surprise that many Plainfield residents previously were unaware of its presence.

That anonymity vanished after the Muslim group paid $580,000 in May to purchase a quaint, white-steepled church building on Main Street (Rte. 126) on the east side of Plainfield, then requested a special-use permit to hold five daily prayer services at the location.

The Muslims bought the property from a Montessori school that had owned the site since 1999. Before that, it was the Christian Church of Plainfield, built circa 1980.

Basarath said he and his fellow worshipers thought the facility was literally the answer to their prayers.

The group received encouragement in its site choice from the village government staff of Plainfield, which was aware of its search for a new home.

Village planner Jonathan Proulx acknowledged helping the group and believing the church location to be suitable.

Though Rte. 126 can be a traffic nightmare, village officials judged the impact of the mosque compared to prior users of the property to be negligible. Still, in an effort to be accommodating, the Muslim group agreed to add more parking and landscaping. Despite opposition from neighbors, the town’s plan commission recommended approval.

But the village board rejected the application Monday on a split, 3-to-3 vote, with one trustee voting “present.”

Mayor Michael Collins, who voted in favor of the project, wouldn’t comment on the motives of opponents but noted that he reminded everyone before the vote of the U.S. Constitution and its guarantee of freedom of religion.

Collins said he’s hopeful the Muslims will win approval at the board’s September meeting.

“I think they’ve fulfilled everything, and I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be given permission,” he said.

Basarath, general secretary of the Muslim organization and general manager of two Bolingbrook hotels, said he has lived in Plainfield more than 20 years. The group’s other three officers also are established Plainfield residents.

Most of the families in their group are from India or Pakistan, along with some from the Middle East, they told me.

I’m not trying to indict everyone in Plainfield here. In a town of nearly 45,000 people, I’m sure there is a wide range of opinion about this project.

This is one of those times, though, when people of good faith — whatever their faith — need to stand up for what’s right and make their voices heard.