Uneasy Feelings Moving In

Muslim Sect's Proposal for Extensive Center Unsettles Small Frederick County Town

Ralph Whitmore, the burgess, or mayor, of Walkersville, and proprietor of a little feed and bird seed store, describes the town as "not very diversified." (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

Walkersville is a town of corn farmers and high school football, where American flags hang over front porches guarded by scarecrows and dotted with pumpkins.

Nestled near the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains on the rural outskirts of Frederick, it has so many churches that some residents call it "God's Country," and many of them are praying that this hamlet of 5,500 will be able to stop a proposed development.

A Silver Spring-based Muslim sect has proposed buying the town's largest farm to build a retreat and Islamic worship center that would host up to 10,000 people annually for a national religious convention.

Under the proposal, the 224-acre farm's colonial-era house, once occupied by the town's founding father, John Walker, would be converted into living space for an imam and other clergy from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. The main prayer and recreation center would be topped with a 65-foot spire, piercing a sky now marked by church steeples and a water tower.

Public outcry against the worship center has been so intense that some town officials are maneuvering to adopt zoning law amendments that could block the project. The town's planning commission will vote tonight on an ordinance to prohibit building places of worship and private clubs on land zoned for agriculture. On Nov. 1, the town's board of appeals will hold a final public hearing and could vote whether to allow the Ahmadiyya community to build its retreat on the property, which is zoned for agriculture.

"It's quite the controversy, and, I think, unfortunately it's become a religious controversy," said Chad W. Weddle, a Town Commission member.

For their part, the Ahmadiyya community has launched an aggressive public relations campaign to introduce itself to townspeople and educate them about the Muslim faith.

"We're trying to reach out to them, to let them know who we are, where we come from and what we want to do," said Syed Ahmad, who is managing the project.

Others in town said they worry about the traffic that the annual retreats would bring and the strain on the water supply and services.

Legally, the town's hands are tied. Making land-use decisions on religious or racial grounds is unconstitutional, and the town can deny the sect's proposal only if there are legitimate concerns about traffic, infrastructure or planning.

The Ahmadiyya community's quest to build in Walkersville has led to one of the latest examples of local opposition to Muslim groups trying to build facilities to accommodate growing congregations across the nation.

The Ahmadiyya community, which looked at more than 50 properties in the mid-Atlantic region, was attracted to the Walkersville site because it is just an hour's drive north of Washington and close to such major highways as Interstate 70, said Syed Ahmad, who is managing the project.