A Hoover, Alabama zoning commission unanimously rejected a rezoning request Monday that would have allowed a Muslim K-12 academy to relocate to an office building in the Birmingham suburb, capping a contentious public hearing that packed roughly 170 residents into the room and erupted with heated testimony over concerns of growing Islamification of the area, 1819 News reports.
The Islamic Academy of Alabama, which has operated in neighboring Homewood since 1995 serving approximately 260 students, sought to move to a larger facility in Hoover’s commercial corridor. The proposal was voted down 7-0 to sustained applause from the crowd of concerned residents.
The town’s commissioners pointed to vehicular congestion in an already-strained commercial corridor and lingering questions about the property’s long-term compatibility as grounds for denial.
John Padgett, whose residential property sits closest to the proposed location, challenged the traffic study’s conclusion that the school would have zero impact on current conditions.
“I see the traffic backed up every morning already,” Padgett reportedly told commissioners. “When they start, if you add a few hundred cars to that, it’s gonna be backed up past the stop sign.“
Padgett recounted a recent incident at an Airbnb next door to his home, carefully prefacing his remarks.
“I want to be very sensitive and careful in the way I say this,” he began, noting that he didn’t want to seem as though he was attacking a particular religion. “They weren’t supposed to have any kind of big parties, but they had an Islamic wedding there.”
Padgett described returning from a trip to find videos from neighbors showing dozens of cars—30 or 40, he estimated—parked throughout the neighborhood, including in his own driveway without permission, blocking his vehicles.
“They drove through my yard. Waving Islamic flags, out the window, and screaming things in Arabic,” he said.
Several attendees brandished signs reading “Give an inch — Dearborn Michigan” and “Stop the 100 year plan”—pointed references to demographic shifts in Dearborn, Michigan, which is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States.
“You’re going to have real problems with this community, I’m just telling you now,” resident Bruce Davis warned commissioners. “There’s going to be an influx of other people that are going to create a problem for this community and we might as well just face it.”
The final public commenter drew applause as the unidentified woman recounted travels through the United Kingdom and issued stark warnings about parallel risks facing the United States. The female speaker described witnessing “the land that gave us the King James Bible, supposedly a Christian nation, overwhelmingly being taken over,” according to 1819 News.
“The Muslims did not assimilate,” she continued. “In fact, the Brits bent backwards to accommodate their demands over and over again, to the level of feeling the second-class citizens in their own country.”
“The citizens could not even voice their grief because it was immediately associated with that type of phobia,” she added. “They gave in an inch and were soon taken for rides, miles away, with no hope of landing back to familiarity.”
Hoover Commission Chairman Mike Wood cut her off, steering the discussion back to zoning criteria. “We are here to look at whether this school was appropriately placed,” he interjected. “We’re not here for that. I’m sorry. We’re not going to listen to that.” The interruption sparked objections from the audience.
Lucas Gambino, who presented the case for the school, pushed back against the city’s objections.
“We’re not here to mislead anybody or trick anybody,” Gambino said, addressing questions about the evolving scope of what was variously described as a community center, prayer center, or auxiliary facility.
Gambino argued against forcing the developer to wait indefinitely for an idealized tenant.
“The idea that holding these 200,000 square feet buildings hostage for a tech buyer to come in and occupy those buildings, when you have a developer that owns those buildings, that’s paying significant carrying costs, on a monthly basis, for those buildings,” Gambino explained. “It’s gonna be asked to sit back and wait for a tech buyer to come in and occupy those buildings.“
Initially, a motion to send the request to the city council without a recommendation was made, but it failed to receive a second. A motion to move the proposal forward with a recommendation to deny it then passed unanimously. The decision now moves to the Hoover City Council, which will likely take up the matter at its first January meeting.
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