Christians make Hate speaches

PA: TURKS DECIDE NOT TO MOVE WHERE THEY'RE NOT WELCOME - TOPJan Ackerman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/16/06http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06075/670710.stmWhen several South Park Christians made hate filled anti-Islamic speeches at a March hearing about a proposed Islamic center, township Supervisor George A. Smith tried to silence them."We are dealing with hard issues," Mr. Smith said during the hearing, which was supposed to focus on zoning issues, not religious or cultural differences."I was not elected to impose my personal beliefs on the community. This is not productive to this kind of discussion," he said.But the anti-Islamic rhetoric was there and it had an impact on the West Penn Cultural Center, a small Turkish nonprofit organization which operates a private school in Monroeville,The group withdrew its application Tuesday to turn the old, vacant Broughton Elementary School into an Islamic center where members could worship and preserve their Turkish culture."It was not an easy decision for us," said Yuksel Korkmaz, director of the cultural center.In a news release, the group cited comments made at last Thursday's hearing as the reason it was moving on."Christians came forward and made comments that deeply hurt members of the cultural center," the release said."As a group that promotes peace and dialogue, we have never encountered such negativity in our long history here."WPCC is looking for a peaceful and lovely environment to perform its activities. ... It is clear to us that South Park is not the best place for our organization." (MORE)