Plainfield, IL

A documented account of Case No. IL_18, occurring in Plainfield, IL, 60544 from August to September 2017

Yubin Kwon

In addition to a 38-space asphalt parking lot next to the building, the Muslim community center provides spaces for worship, storage, and other facilities useful to the people using the community center. Along with small playground equipment nearby, the community center is approximately 2.2 ± acres with 2800± square feet of built space over two levels. Nearby residential areas and properties are at least 90 to 100 feet away from the community center and 40 to 50 feet away from the parking lot (Bogda, 2017).

Denied; then approved. After many complaints of discrimination, the Plainfield Village Board passed Basalath and his group’s proposal on September 18th, 2017. This allowed the Muslim community to operate the mosque and community center on its property in a residential-zoned district at 23616 W. Main. St

Basalath and Board Members Create Proposal

Leaders of successful Muslim community center in Bolingbrook including Zaki Basalath-the secretary- and his group (the Islamic Foundation of the Southwest Suburbs, a non-profit organization) wanted to open a Muslim facility in Plainfield. Basalath and his group has held numerous prayer services in a storefront in Route 59 for ten years in the Plainfield area and earlier in the year of 2017, the group bought the former church site/Montessori school for $580,000 and requested the Plainfield Village Board for permission to open a Muslim community center. However, there were various concerns and objections from the public in terms of allowing the religious center to operate in a residential area.

The Local Community and Public Protest

The Muslim group had great dilemma and objection for their proposal from the Plainfield residents surrounding the desired location of the Mosque (Muslim community) due to traffic and parking concerns even though the location used to be a church and Montessori school in the past. A group of residents had drafted a petition asking the village board to deny the application. Even though the petition garnered only 69 signatures, the village board still rejected the Muslim community’s proposal.

Basalath claimed that the opposition to his and his group’s request was motivated by racial and religious discrimination. Therefore, soon on September 18th, there was a meeting between the Southwest Suburban Activists and Illinois Stop Moving Backwards for reconsideration of the results, also urging local residents to attend and speak up in favor of the Muslim community.  The Muslim group refused to give up on their Mosque proposal by organizing an online event called “Stand with Muslims in Plainfield to Demand Approval of a Mosque!” on Facebook, promoting and inviting Plainfield residents to join the Plainfield Village Board meeting to support a local Muslim group which was denied to practice their religion freely-praying and worshipping- for no logical reason.

The Revised Proposal

After the second objection from the Plainfield village board, Basalath and members of the Islamic Foundation of the Southwest Suburbs revised their proposal utilizing the feedback and discussion from the meeting on August 7th when a motion to table the discussion was voted down.

“The revised proposal included: no parking on Ash street along the property’s frontage; dense landscaping to prevent headlights from shining into nearby homes; an occupancy limit of 114 people based on the existing capacity of 38 parking spaces in the parking lot; and ‘resident only’ parking on Maple Court” (Ortiz, 2018).

After reviewing the revised proposal, the Village Board stated that the Mosque property usage was more reasonable and possible than the first proposal.

Outcome

After many failures and objections due to minor traffic and parking problems, the Muslim community center was able to move forward on September 18th by getting their proposal accepted due to numerous claims of religious and racial discrimination and an original no vote from those who were Muslims in Plainfield and other people who strongly supported the Muslim community. Over 100 people attended the meeting, and an overwhelming majority of people supported the construction of the Muslim Community Center and moved forward even though there were some restrictions and conditions including owners having to follow parking restrictions and installing a privacy fence for nearby residents. It was a rare case where many members of the public actually supported the Muslim community within their residential area.

Therefore, there were several agreements made in terms of the operation of the community center, including the costs for design and engineering of the community center could not go over $1 million, and the overall construction could not cost over $4.8 million.

Current Status

For over a year of planning, raising profit, and construction, the mosque in Plainfield opened on May 11th, 2018. There was an open house and ribbon-cutting the day before the Mosque officially opened to the public. The public officials and residents of Plainfield took tours of the Muslim Community Center, “ate food the foundation served, and even participated in a Q&A session with members of the Muslim community” (Ortiz, 2018). Basalath also stated that the Muslim community received many different welcoming phone calls and gifts delivered to them which made him realize how warm of a community Plainfield actually is.

November 4, 2019