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In an era saturated with absurd moments of anti-Muslim fear-mongering, mosques have become a touchstone for Islamophobia. Even unbuilt mosques have set off a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in Tennessee, Texas, California, and most notably, New York. Not to be outdone, the people of Pheonix, AZ were quick to call foul over the appearance of a dome-like structure along an interstate. But in the clamor over the impending Muslim takeover, these Arizonans missed one small detail — the building is not a Mosque, it's a church:



A new dome-like structure near 19th Avenue along Interstate 10 in Phoenix is the Light of the World church, a nondenominational Christian church hoping to modernize traditional worship services, a church spokesman said

Since the distinctive dome shape went up, church leaders said they have received phone calls from concerned neighbors who’ve mistaken the building for an Islamic mosque.

On Wednesday, church officials hung a sign reminding people they’re Christian congregation. “We’re trying to let people know that we’re Christian and our churches are modern,” said Uzieo Martinez.

“It is unfortunate that people are so intolerant to differences that they aren’t willing to see that the place of worship is not a mosque,” said Tayyibah Amatullah of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Arizona chapter. But with so many high-profile figures selling unfounded, anti-Muslim fear to the public, is it any wonder that all many Americans can see in Islam is a phantom menace?"

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Conservatives have for months led a hateful campaign against the expansion of a local Islamic center and mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This campaign has been endorsed by high-ranking Republicans such as the state’s Lt. Governor, Ron Ramsey, who last month, wondered aloud whether Islam was a religion or a “cult.” The center was even the target of an arson attack in August.

Mosque opponents have turned to the legal system to bring a lawsuit against its founders, seeking an injuction to stop the construction. Now, Joe Brandon Jr., the lawyer for the opponents, argued in court during a recent appearance that stopping the expansion of the mosque would not violate of the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion because Islam isn’t a religious faith but rather a seditious movement seeking to impose “Sharia law” on the United States"

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Mosque opponents say that Islam is not a real religion. They argued in a Rutherford County courthouse last week that the world’s second-largest faith, with its 1.6 billion followers, is actually a political movement.

Opponents say local Muslims want to replace the Constitution with an Islamic legal code called Shariah law. Joe Brandon Jr., a Smyrna,, Tenn., lawyer representing a group of mosque opponents, argued that the proposed mosque is not a house of worship. He said the Rutherford County Planning Commission erred when it approved the mosque. Brandon wants an injunction stopping the mosque. “Shariah law is pure sedition,” said Brandon in his opening statement Monday.

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In stoking fears of “Sharia law,” Brandon Jr. is taking his lead from former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who just last month called for a federal ban on the non-existent threat of Sharia being imposed on the United States.

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The Texas office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-TX) reported today that local police and the FBI are investigating possibly bias-motivated incidents of arson, hate graffiti and racial slurs targeting a mosque in that state.

[NOTE: CAIR is also looking into a report of recent vandalism at a mosque under construction in Round Rock, Texas. A motive has not yet been established in that case.]

CAIR-TX said a Sunday fire at the playground of Dar El-Eman Islamic Center in Arlington, Texas, followed an incident two days earlier in which obscene anti-Muslim graffiti was discovered in the mosque's parking lot. A third incident involved racial slurs being shouted at worshippers on Sunday.

A spokesperson for Arlington police told CAIR that arson investigators and the FBI are involved in the probe. Police patrols have been stepped up in the area surrounding the mosque.

CAIR-TX took part in a Tuesday meeting at the mosque in which the FBI and other fire and law enforcement officials discussed the investigation.

The Texas Penal Code allows for enhanced penalties if an offense is "committed because of bias or prejudice."

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FBI officials in Jacksonville, Fla., say they have found the remnants of a pipe bomb used in a possible hate crime at a mosque during evening prayers.

Along with local police, the FBI launched an investigation after an explosion shook the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida at 9:35 p.m. Monday, when approximately 60 people were inside praying. No one was injured.

"They heard a loud explosion and went out an emergency exit in the back," Muhammad Mansoori, a Jacksonville resident who worships at the mosque, told AOL News. "There was a fire, and a wall where the bomb was left was blackened. Otherwise, the building is sturdy, no real damage."

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A loosely organized protest planned this week over a proposed new mosque in Temecula whose organizers urged demonstrators to bring their dogs was sharply denounced by a Southern California Islamic organization Tuesday.

Organizers of the rally, to be held outside the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley during prayers Friday, appear to be associated with a southwest Riverside County political group affiliated with the "tea party" movement. In anonymous e-mails and website postings, organizers encouraged protesters to bring their dogs — considered an insult to Muslims.

"Opposing the rights of certain Americans to freely practice religion is not only shameful and immoral, but unconstitutional," said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Greater Los Angeles Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "I am confident that our fellow Americans from all faith backgrounds will join us in rejecting such KKK tactics of intolerance, bigotry and intimidation.''

The call for demonstrators to bring dogs was a purposeful effort to "cause offense," Ayloush said, because many Muslims believe that the saliva of dogs is impure and invalidates Islamic rituals performed before prayer.

The protest comes as the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley moves ahead with plans to build a 24,943-square-foot mosque on a vacant, four-acre plot in the southeast portion of Temecula. The proposal has stirred some hostility in the mostly conservative community in Riverside County, with opponents saying they fear the mosque will bring unwanted traffic and noise, as well as attract Islamic extremists.

The announcement on the website, which has since disappeared, stated that Islam is a "worldwide political movement meant" to dominate the world. It called on protesters to "bring your Bibles, flags, signs, dogs and singing voice on Friday."

The group states that one of its core missions is to "return the local Tea Party Movement to the people."

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An ad campaign directed at Muslims who may be questioning their religion is rolling through the streets of some major U.S. cities.

"Fatwa on your head?" the ads ask. "Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!" A group called "Stop Islamization of America" is financing the ads on public transportation in San Francisco, New York and Miami, The Christian Science Monitor reported Wednesday.

The ads counter ones run by a Muslim group that say, "The way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Islam. Got questions? Get answers."

The group's executive director, conservative blogger Pamela Geller, told the online newspaper in an e-mail response to questions that the ads are "a defense of religious freedom." Geller, who has gone to court or threatened litigation to get the ads on buses in some cities, said their primary intention is "to help ex-Muslims who are in trouble" and "raise awareness of the threat that apostates live under even in the West."

The Monitor said some religious rights groups maintain the ads run by Geller's group are meant to incite fear about the followers of Islam.

"In this post-9/11 world … it's almost like there's some political and spiritual currency to be gained by being anti-Islamic," Steve Spreitzer, programs director for Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, an interfaith group in Detroit, told the newspaper.

Geller's ads tout the Web site RefugeFromIslam.com, which contends Muslim Americans who "long to be free" of their religion are in danger of being killed, an allegation Muslim rights groups and religious leaders deny.

In the San Francisco area, an ecumenical array of more than 125 religious leaders signed a statement this month denouncing the ads as "Islamophobic." The ads, they said, "promote fear of Muslim Americans."

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But local commentary had been growing, saying that the building was a mosque and an investigation should be launched into the church.

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Some vigilant citizens in Phoenix, Arizona are up in arms over a domed church that they wrongly believe to be a mosque. The large building, still under construction along a busy interstate, is actually a nondenominational church. The backlash has been severe enough that the church's leaders have hung a giant banner over the dome

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the church was briefly used for prayers while work was underway to build a mosque for the new Muslim residents. A minaret was attached to the building, but its cross was never removed.

Later, the church was used for storage and as a stall.

However, current work on the church is being causing an uproar.

'There is no doubt that this structure is a church. It's a church even if it was briefly used as a mosque,' said Turkish architect and college instructor Oktay Ekinci.

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I want it to be a very good nation, and not a bad-but-not-as-bad-as-theirs nation.

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