FARMINGTON — “It was just really a shock. And it was hurtful to feel that hate. I never felt that living in this country,” Muslim American Reem Shukairy says while speaking about the controversy surrounding the sale of Eagle Elementary to the Islamic Cultural Association (ICA).

The ICA made a $1.1 million offer to purchase the school before it was expected to be demolished. Perhaps the biggest complaint about the sale is that negotiations on it between the board and ICA were not discussed openly for public feedback.

She’s a member of the ICA, and attended a Farmington school board meeting in June where local residents expressed concern and fear about having an Islamic center in their neighborhood. Testimonies were made at the meeting to encourage board members not to approve the sale.   Comments recently published on the controversey in a local ethnic paper show that tension surrounding the purchase still exists.  

Some who opposed granting approval of the sale are Jewish. In a news report one woman said, what happened at the meeting gave Jews a bad name. She asked the community not to judge Jews by what they witnessed there.

But other Jews defended Muslims at the meeting including representatives from the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Community Relations Council. One called some of the remarks bigotry.   

ICA President Firas Nashef said different faiths came to the defense of Muslims in the situation. He says he looks forward to continuing working with members of the Jewish community who have reached out to the ICA in terms of following up on the project. “We appreciated their positions and working further with them (Jews) and other community members,” Nashef said. He believes the project will unify communities, and says the ICA will continue building bridges with people who have concerns about the future center.  

“When this was happening I thought to myself, ‘I would never stand in the way of a Jewish synagogue being built, or a church. I would never stand in someone’s way just wanting to express their religion,’” Shukairy said.

The ICA made a $1.1 million offer to purchase the school before it was expected to be demolished.  Perhaps the biggest complaint is that negotiations on the sale between the board and ICA were not discussed openly for public feedback. Some say there was no for sale sign placed outside, and other potential purchases lost the opportunity.   

Although the school board granted approval of the sale, it’s not finalized according to Nashef.

“As we go through the purchasing process we want to reach out to the community and really show them that we are regular Americans. Just because we look different or have different beliefs doesn’t mean that we’re not patriots and we don’t love this country the same way,” Shukairy said. She says she’s heard  someone say ‘why would we bring 9/11 back in this area’ referring to the future center.  

Mayssa Rajjo, a  volunteer of the Huda School which operates in the same facility as the ICA but is a separate entity says the notion that there are not enough Muslims in the region for a center to be built is ‘completely false.’

 She says there are lots of Muslims living in Franklin, Farmington Hills, West Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills, and it’s the Huda School that continues to attract more Muslims to the cities.  She says the Huda School is the only Islamic School besides the one in Beverly Hills that is within close proximity to Muslim families in the region, and educational standards at the Huda School exceed those of the Beverly Hills school.  “If you had kids wouldn’t you move by the school you wanted to put your kids in,” she said.

 Concerns about traffic and noise that would occur has been raised. In one report a woman who opposed the sale said, “bells would ring five times a day or whatever those people do.” Rajjo says there will be no bells at the center.  

Another misunderstanding is that a guest speaker who hates Jews and denied the holocaust was invited by the ICA.  Nashef says the visit was canceled because the views of the controversial speaker did not represent the views of the ICA.

 Mayssa says the Quran demands that Muslims respect all cultures, religions and prophets. “As Muslims I really do believe in every prophet that God has sent. I really deeply respect every, and any religion on earth. I don’t need to agree with them, but I do respect them.”

 She says the ICA would use the center to hold its holiday events, monthly dinners and meetings. Shukairy says it would also be a place to meet for prayers, and for the youth to engage in sports and other activities.

The Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Community Relations Council’s stand on defending the sale has been criticized. One argument presents the notion that the organizations shouldn’t have defended Muslims because they have not stood up for Jews.

 “We will.  If we see something wrong, we are going to stand up and say it’s wrong,” Shukairy said.

The controversy might not come as a surprise, since often new Islamic projects around the country face prejudice.“This is a free country. If it was anything but an Islamic center it would be totally fine with everybody. But because it’s an Islamic center they want to make a big deal out of it and create something that was never our intention to do,” Rajjo said.