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When pastor Steve Stone initially heard of the mosque and Islamic center being erected on the sprawling land adjacent his church, his stomach tightened.

Then he raised a 6-foot sign reading, "Welcome to the Neighborhood."

The issue for Stone and the 550-person Heartsong Church in Cordova, came down to one question:

"What would Jesus do if He were us? He would welcome the neighbor," Stone said.

The Memphis Islamic Center, a nonprofit organization formed three years ago, is two weeks from breaking ground on the first phase of a multimillion-dollar complex.

While plans for Islamic centers from Manhattan to Southern California and just miles away in Murfreesboro, Tenn., have triggered vitriolic responses and divided communities, here in Memphis it's been a peaceful process.

On a 31-acre stretch at Humphrey Road and Houston Levee, Memphis Islamic Center leaders plan to build a massive gathering place during the next several years. It will include a mosque, youth center, day care center, indoor gym, sports fields, medical clinic and retirement home.

While the 4,000-square-foot worship hall is being completed, Heartsong has opened its doors to its neighbors throughout the month-long observance of Ramadan.

Under a gigantic cross constructed of salvaged wood, nearly 200 area Muslims have been gathering each night to pray.

"I think it's helped break down a lot of barriers in both congregations," said Islamic center board member Danish Siddiqui.

"I've got fear and ignorance in me, too," said Stone, referring to his and some of his congregants' early apprehension toward the Memphis center.

But as members of the Christian congregation take the opportunity to sit in on Ramadan prayers and meet people at the nightly gatherings, much of that mystery and fear has dissipated.

"People in Memphis appreciate faith, even if it's not their faith," said Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, the Islamic center's scholar in residence and a Rhodes College professor.

The peaceful tone in the Bluff City has been refreshing for Qadhi, 35, who recently moved to Memphis from Connecticut, where early this month his Bridgeport mosque was descended on by angry protestors yelling slurs at families as they arrived for evening prayer.

"We're living in a climate of Islamophobia," he said.

The Memphis project hasn't been entirely free of criticism. Bloggers and religious publications have speculated that the Memphis group is receiving funding from Saudi Arabia, which the local Islamic board says is completely false.

"If the community can't put it together, it's not worth it," said Siddiqui, a Germantown resident.

The overarching fear being voiced in protests going on across the country is that Islamic centers will become hubs for teaching extremism.

But Islamic center board members say it's to the contrary.

Islamic community centers help form solid Muslim-American identities and keep young kids and adults from feeling marginalized, they said.

Without a place to call home, young Muslims are more likely to seek more radical interpretation of the Quran online, says Arsalan Shirwany, a board member and father of three.

When it is finished, the new facility will be a center for the whole community, and a place for interfaith cooperation, Shirwany said.

"This is what we need to fight extremism," he said.

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When the second of the four rightly guided Caliphs, Umar ibn Al-Khattab, entered Jerusalem in 638 AD, he entered the city on foot, out of respect for the holiness of the place.

His first action was to clear the rubble and the debris from the area of Al-Aqsa Mosque and to cleanse the whole sight with rose water.

There was no bloodshed. There was no slaughter. Unlike the slaughter of 70,000 men, women and children which accompanied the arrival of the Crusaders in 1099, the Muslims entered the city peacefully, signing a treaty with the Patriarch Sophronius, which guaranteed their rights to worship, their lives and their property.

The Patriarch, no doubt acting upon his lived experience in the city, asked that no Jews be allowed to live in Jerusalem. Salah Al-Din, known as Saladin in the West, lifted this injunction when he retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187.

Those who wished to leave were guaranteed their safety. Those who wished to remain were allowed to do so.

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During this time, Christians and Jews held high office in the royal court. It was only when the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, retook the Muslim cities in the south that mosques and synagogues were burned down and Muslims and Jews were either expelled or forced to convert.

Sultan Mehmet II officially recognized Patriarch Gennadius II as leader of the Orthodox peoples throughout the Ottoman Empire following the capture of Constantinople in 1453.

In the same year, he granted to the leader of the Jewish community (the Chief Rabbi) the title “Hahambasha”, or Chief Wise Man. Both actions show the respect for other faiths which was to symbolize the Ottoman rule.

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We have only to look at Palestine under the Ottoman Empire, to see that this was the greatest period when the region knew peace. Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together happily in the holy city of Jerusalem.

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Some weeks after the Israeli attack on Gaza in January 2009, there was a rise in anti-Semitic attacks and hate crimes in many countries.

In Edinburgh, the synagogue of the United Hebrew Congregation was attacked by vandals, allegedly protesting against the war on Gaza. The response from the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, Scotland’s largest umbrella organization for Muslims, was swift: “We will guard the synagogue for you”, they said, if it proved too difficult for the Jewish community to do so.

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The first step is to hold up a mirror to yourself. Examine what beliefs your community (in my case, Christians) holds and how they hold them. On the positive side, you are likely to find there some features which can improve relations. Informed and empathic Muslims also speak well of many elements of Christianity. On the negative side, the mirror will reveal flaws, and to acknowledge them — without grovelling or in a spirit of self-hate which can come naturally to Christians who are fighting their own heritage — will enrich the conversation. It is disarming when neither party in a dialogue has to keep up appearances and both can meet each other honestly.

Another crucial step is to educate yourself about the other's religion, especially by reading their scriptures. In times of tension and terrorism, agitators tend to highlight the tense and terrifying texts in the others' books — the Qur'an or the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament. To suggest that violence is what the other faith is all about is dishonest and always alienating. I have never met a Jew or Christian who thinks that the texts in the "Holy War" books of Joshua and Judges (or try I Samuel 15) — which license and even command genocide — are what Judaism or Christianity is about. Those scriptures instead climax in messages of peace and healing. So does the Qur'an.

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they'd like that, actually. We'd be falling right in line with what they're all about. And that's what they want

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The US and the rest of the Western world has shown more tolerance, more generosity and more freedom to non Christians than the Mullahs could shake a stick at.

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engaging in Anti-Islamic rhetoric, violence and racism

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Mosques and other places of worship have been particular targets of vandalism and arson. In some incidents, religious texts have also been desecrated and destroyed.

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The city has denied a special use permit that would allow a mosque to replace a shut down hot dog grill.

It's based on the need to generate tax revenue on the former site of the original Fluky's and later U Lucky Dawg, at 6821 N. Western Ave.

"Our neighborhood is probably one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city of Chicago," said Zandel.

Zandel says the organization's 200 members include a strong Muslim presence.

"Our membership is probably made up between 30 and 40 percent Muslim," she said.

Yet in spite of that, the chamber is opposing construction of the mosque on the site.

It's the same neighborhood where the former hot dog restaurant along busy Western Avenue has sat vacant for two years.

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