After the Kennesaw City Council voted last week to deny an application to allow a mosque in a retail shopping center, the mayor is urging members of the council to reconsider the decision.
Mayor Mark Mathews said Sunday he would like to see the issue brought up at the council’s meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m.
“Our meeting procedures provide a way for a council member to bring an item back for reconsideration. My hopes are that one will,” Mathews said.
The permit Mufti Islam, of Kennesaw, applied for would allow a mosque inside a 2,200-square-foot unit in a shopping center off Jiles Road, and Mathews said the council could discuss and re-vote on the application if a council member suggests it.
“It’s completely up to a council member,” Mathews said.
If one member asks to reconsider the mosque’s application, then a majority, which is three out of the five council members, will have to agree to look at the application again at the Wednesday work session meeting, according to city code.
Councilwoman Cris Eaton-Welsh, who voted in favor of the mosque, said she also hopes someone on the council will want to discuss the issue again.
“The council has not agreed to do anything yet, but I am hopeful that they will,” Eaton-Welsh said Sunday.
Mathews’ recommendation to the council to reconsider the mosque’s request for a prayer center in Kennesaw comes after a backlash of public comment to council members in person, on social media sites, by email and by phone about the 4-1 vote to deny the application.
Eaton-Welsh wouldn’t talk about the specifics of the many comments she and the other council members have received, but she said the tension among residents in Kennesaw has led to increased security for all council members.
“Since this is such a controversial time, the Kennesaw Police Department has been proactive and has increased security for all council members,” Eaton-Welsh said.
All four other council members did not return requests for comment.
Following the vote, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it would offer legal support to Islam if he decided to follow through with his threats to file a lawsuit against the city for violation of his First Amendment right to worship freely.
Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman of CAIR, said the applicant has not made a decision yet about whether to go forward with a lawsuit.
“We’re still monitoring and working with the community, but I don’t think anything has been decided,” Hooper said.
Hooper said he often sees a negative reaction in communities where mosques are built and CAIR works to educate the public about the mosque while preserving Muslims’ right to practice their religion freely under the First Amendment.
“It’s unfortunately fairly difficult now when there’s a proposal for a new mosque or the expansion of an existing facility that you’re going to see those who hold bigoted views about Islam or Muslims come out of the woodworks, and I think that’s what we saw in this case,” Hooper said.
Doug Dillard, Mufti Islam’s attorney, said there were no new updates on the mosque yet, but the applicant is expected to make a decision about filing a lawsuit by Tuesday.