Mosque coming to Markham

From York Region

Hello Islamic mosque, bye-bye Taoist temple?
A Taj Mahal-like mosque is in the works for Markham’s 16th Avenue after the town’s development services committee gave the project a green light Tuesday.
The proposal from the Islamic Society of Markham is to build a 28,000-sq. ft. mosque just east of St. Brother Andre Catholic School.
The mosque will accommodate more than 500 worshippers and will include 188 parking spaces.
It measures 34 feet in height for the main building, 70 feet for the top of the dome and 135 feet for the minaret (the tall spire).
The overall design of the mosque was well received by town councillors.
“It resembles the Taj Mahal in India,” said Regional Councillor Joe Li.
The mosque, estimated to cost between $6.5 million to $7 million, will be the second in Markham after the Islamic Society’s Jam’e Masjid on Denison Street, said Shafique Malik, president of the Islamic Society.


Mr. Malik said the new mosque is needed because the current one is at capacity with about 400 members and because more Muslims are living in northern Markham.
He said a group of about 50 regulars has been gathering for daily prayers at Markham Museum for the last two years.
“All the Muslims in Markham should be very excited about this, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a mosque,” Mr. Malik said. “It’s a big achievement for the community. It’s in the middle, a historic area of the town.” Mr. Malik said while there are concerns about potential traffic congestion and future parking overflow during big events like Ramadan, a new traffic light has been proposed to be erected at 16th Avenue and Williamson Road and the Catholic school has agreed to help accommodate parking if there is overflow.
Mr. Malik said they have been renting the school space for various events and that they have a good relationship with the Catholic school board.
Meanwhile, during the same meeting, an award-winning architect’s design of a proposed Taoist temple in Markham was ruled out of character with the community by town councillors.
The contentious proposal three years in the making had from the outset drew opposition from the public largely because it would also offer Taoist tai chi classes as part of the religion.
While that issue is still a concern for some, the application to build the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism on Steeles Avenue between Bayview Avenue and Leslie Street was rejected in a 11-2 vote based on a built form that many residents say is incompatible with the neighbouring residential area.
Designed by Brigitte Shim of Shim-Sutcliffe Architects in Toronto, the elevated one-storey, flat-roof temple measures less than 3,500 sq. ft. in size and 26 feet in height.
The cantilevered (fixed end beam) building is supported by seven sets of columns to allow for 30 parking spaces and circulation beneath the structure.
“We see this as a sacred space, a place for worship in a neighbourhood,” said Ms Shim, who has been on the University of Toronto’s architecture, landscape, and design faculty since 1988.
“As an architect, Steeles Avenue is a neighbourhood in transition … this project is oriented to Steeles Avenue, it does not impact the residential neighbourhood,” Ms Shim added.
She said three years for this scale of project is “really unbelievable”.
While the town’s development services commissioner Jim Baird has indicated the proposed form is in compliance with the existing building setbacks, height, lot coverage standards of the residential zoning and that there are several examples of other modernistic buildings in the community, many believe a building “on stilts” doesn’t fit in to a residential area.
“Many residents feel it’s a square pig in a round hole, that they are trying to squeeze parking underneath,” said Thornhill Ward 1 Councillor Valerie Burke, who moved to deny the application and was seconded by Thornhill Ward 2 Councillor Howard Shore.
Ms Burke said most residents are not convinced there won’t be traffic overflow on their streets.
But Adam Brown, the applicant’s lawyer, argued that just because people don’t appreciate the architectural design doesn’t mean it isn’t compatible.
Plus, cantilevers aren’t stilts, said Chris Farano of Fung Loy Kok Institute.
“Built form, to us, is irrelevant here,” Mr. Farano said. “They don’t want us there.”
Asked why they wouldn’t consider relocating the project elsewhere in Thornhill or Markham — something Mayor Frank Scarpitti hoped the applicant would agree to — Mr. Farano said it’s about a point of principle for Fung Loy Kok. “If we are out of sight, we are out of mind,” he said. “It’s a classic case of nimbyism.”

 

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

30 Replies to “Mosque coming to Markham”

  1. Absolutely ludicrous. Some people don’t need any help committing cultural suicide, they are naive, ignorant and willing victims.

  2. Taoist aren’t running around killing people they are safe to discriminate against.

  3. What is the proper response to the building of this mosque? For an objective, morally principled view, I would strongly urge all people who value Western civilization to find the time to read Craig Biddle’s article ‘The Ground Zero Mosque, the Spread of Islam, and How America Should Deal with Such Efforts’ over on The Objective Standard website. Here are the opening three paragraphs:

    “Many Americans are outraged, and rightfully so, by the efforts of a group of Muslims to build a thirteen-story mosque two blocks from the site where, in 2001, another group of Muslims—motivated by their barbaric creed—slaughtered 3,000 Americans. (Some Americans are not outraged by this effort, and this article is not addressed to them.) Even good people, however, are divided about how to deal with such a situation.

    Some say government should forcibly stop the project even if doing so requires the use of extra-legal measures or nonobjective laws (e.g., zoning laws); others say government should respect the property owners’ rights to use their property as they see fit. Some say property rights do not apply in this case because the mosque backers are aiding the enemy; others say there is insufficient evidence to support such claims. Some say this whole thing is a matter of First Amendment rights, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech; others say the choice of location is so insulting to Americans, especially to the families of those murdered on 9/11, that such rights do not apply. Some say the project would be fine if it were built elsewhere; others say America should prohibit the building of mosques anywhere.

    What is the truth of the matter? What principles properly govern such situations? How should America deal with such efforts by Muslims?”

    The whole essay is here:

    http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2010-fall/ground-zero-mosque-spread-of-islam.asp

  4. Just what the hell is wrong with people in authority these days, are the so blind as to not to see what’s going on? Building a mosque slap bang in the middle of a country’s culture is a classic example of the Islamic way of destroying the culture of the host country.

  5. tc,
    That is their goal.One standardized population dominated by one religion is much easier to subdue,control and tax to death.

    If the building holds 500 people why would you only have have 188 parking places?
    Is there a population of muslims to support the size of the building ?
    How much will it cost all citizens?

  6. tc they own less then half, between North America and Russia the Islamic world is at best third and possibly fourth in the amount of crude oil they own. Their big advantage is they don’t have people suing to stop the drilling for oil, the watermelons (green on the outside but red inside) are working to see that the US and Canada don’t drill and refine the oil we have in the ground. From what I have been able to learn if we were allowed to us our own oil the US and Canada would be energy self sufficient, which would drive down the price of oil for the rest of the world.

  7. Debbie,
    Islamification by stealth some people call it, and our dim so-called leaders can’t see what’s happening.

    Here in the U.K. we have a similar situation in the ancient and historic city of York where the mussies have applied for planning permission to expand their “community centre” that they also use for prayer.

    This is a favourite trick of the mussies in their quest to build more and more mosques in readiness for a complete Islamic take over. Their favourite sites are centres of none-Islamic culture in order to dominate it, disused churches and burial grounds in order to trample the Infidel religion under foot, and also places like the Twin Towers so that the mosque can stand as a monument to their “martyrs” who murdered all those people.

    First they get permission for a “community centre” which they also use for prayer. They then wait a few years and get planning permission to expand it. They then wait a few more years and apply for a full blown mosque and usually get it thanks to the half baked councilors who run the show and a few greased palms.

    A long drawn out process yes, but they have the time. The Muslim Brotherhood have given themselves 100yrs for Islam to rule the world and the mussies are certainly working on it. It’s just a pity that our so-called leaders and do-gooder half-wits haven’t got the intell to realize what’s going on, but most of them are too busy feathering their own nests to care anyway.

  8. Richard,
    Whatever amount of oil they own it’s still a lot of revenue. As for the oil off the American coast, you’re right, if the oil was lifted it certainly would lower world oil prices and this would be a very costly business for the oil barons. This is the reason for O.P.E.C., it exists in order to control world oil production so that prices don’t fall to uneconomic levels.

  9. Not just off the coast, there are a lot of states, including my home state, that has oil under it that the environmentalists have blocked the drilling of. One of the problems we have is that the left has controlled the media so long the majority of people are convinced that the corporations especially the oil companies want to poison the air and water. For this reason they refuse to believe us about the amount of oil and the ability to pump it safely.

  10. Richard
    I think you will find that there is more to it than meets the eye when it comes to the extraction of the oil beeing blocked. Believe me, if the powers that be want that oil out then they will get it out regardless of the enviromentalists. Everything points to them not wanting the oil out, at least not yet. That oil is America’s fuel insurance and it seems to me that all this oil exploration is just to find out just how much oil there is.

    As a matter of interest the Russians are doing exactly the same thing, they’re awash with the stuff. They already supply gas to large parts Europe. Some people believe that whoever controls the worlds oil supply controls the world. Food for thought.

  11. In time like this there is a certain kind of local goverment official, -lazy, overpaid, super dull lumpens-; who are hand picked to exercise the will of the ruling elite. Town councillors top these kind. They will not spare any opportunity to exhibit their contempt for the ordinary every day folk who are footing the bill for their life of indolence and insolence. They will rub the salt in the wounds if needs be and enjoy it too and all. May God forgive them.!

    It seems that in return for a plentiful supply of cheap oil and lucrative contracts, the West contracted to promote Islam in the West and in Europe in particular. It was in the lot. A devil’s bargain.This happened in the seventies or so we are told. With the many advantages, came the down side,which they may or may not have contemplated as they were motivated by greed with no vision or concern for the median or balance. Then came the excess which bred lives of comfort and complacency among the younger Westerners. Many became civilized to a point whereby it had a sterlizing effect. Maybe that is how civilizations fall in the end. The future may not be with the West, but it most certainly is not with the Muslim world either. It may well lie further East where there is at the moment a revival of neo-Confusism, well in some parts anyway!

    The town councillors are right, a Toaist temple would be totally out of character in such a place!

  12. anon
    Oil is the gold of the day, liquid gold, and a lot of people agree with what you say and that there has been a Devil’s bargain made. But I wouldn’t put too much blame on local councilors even as corrupt as some of them are, they are only the little fish. The big fish are those liars traitors and cheats known as the Lib-Lab-Conmen who infest Westminster.

    The mussies know that the great weakness of the West is greed and the obsession with oil and they exploit it to the hilt.

  13. tc72 you are taking a stance a lot of people are taking, put the truth is that the left wing Judges have so much power they are stopping the drilling even when others want to drill. Look at the vilification of anyone who wants to drill. The left has control of most of the media and of a large portion of the courts, their goal is to see that the US is a weak nation with no power. Right now they are preventing the US from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico but are applauding when Castro invites China and Russia to drill there.

  14. Richard
    Also let’s not forget that there are big bucks to be made and that means big back-handers as to who does what.

  15. And big political power to those who can take it, I know that in my home state the drilling was stopped because the massive amounts of money coming into the small towns would have shifted the center of political power to the small towns and away from the cities.

  16. Markham isn’t the place for this mosque.

    Put it somewhere else. Don’t destroy Markham anymore.

  17. Fortunately, the people who live in that area aren’t taking it lying down. The discussion threads on the newspaper web site are on fire and a petition has already garnered more than 1200 signatures. The Taoist Temple project was scrapped because a total of 88 residents wrote in opposing it.

    http://www.yorkregion.com/searchresult?AssetType=Article&q=mosque&r=all:1&sortby=sPublishDateTS

    The beauty of this is that the city gave approval for a mosque with 500 worshippers. The literature on the mosque web site used for raising donations talked about 1600 worshippers ! When caught out they said it was a typo and it was really 600. Once again when they were found out since the approval was for 500 worshippers, it was another “My bad ! It’s really only for 500 people!”. I think this project is going to run into some really rough weather.

  18. Just another example of how this mass of immigrants over the last 30 years is not working anymore. Multiculturalism is destroying the traditional Canadian way of life, does not work in practice.

    Repeal the Trudeau multiculturalism policy.

  19. Hello everyone,

    As many of you have commented on the mosque to be built in Markham, local residents are outraged with lack of leadership the town council has illustrated. I have sent multiple emails to Colin Campbell and the Mayor. I haven’t received a response in over a week. I strongly encourage you to support our movement. The Town is trying to brush our efforts under the carpet by ignoring us. We will not back down but need as much support as possible.

    I ask you to stand up for Markham’s heritage and the heritage of our country. This development is far from what Markham should look like.

    Stand together. Stand strong!

  20. You can help by first signing the petition below:

    http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/petition-to-build-markham-mosque-elsewhere.html

    You can also help by emailing the Markham Council:

    jh****@ma*****.ca
    jj****@ma*****.ca
    gl*****@ma*****.ca
    jo***@ma*****.ca
    vb****@ma*****.ca
    hs****@ma*****.ca
    dh*******@ma*****.ca
    cm******@ma*****.ca
    ac***@ma*****.ca
    lk********@ma*****.ca
    al*****@ma*****.ca
    cc*******@ma*****.ca

    You can also write a letter to the organizers of the place of worship and mail it to them at:

    Board of Directors:

    1. Najmul Siddiqui
    2. Maqsood Ahmad (905 999 2000)
    3. Shafiq Malik
    4. Mehmood Ahmad (416 209 6425)
    5. Atif Khan (647 886 4000)
    6. Nasir Bashir Ahmad

    Accounting:

    Mohammad Fazil
    mo************@ho*****.com
    905-209-8200 / Mon-Fri 5:30-7:30pm

    Mailing Address:

    6210 16TH AVE
    MARKHAM ON L3P 3K8

    Please support the fight and voice your concerns! We need your support!!

  21. I am really Shocked to see such disgusting comments from my fellow Canadian Citizens. I have lived in Markham for over 15 years now and I have never come across such hostility against such topics. I carry a duo nationality. I love both and I respect both. I love the fact that Canada gave me the opportunity to be part of them and be a part of my origin as well. I love the fact that it gave me the opportunity to practice whichever religion I prefer without any racism at all. I am shocked today after 15 years to see what my Fellow Markham Citizens are feeling about this.

    Come on people, we are not racist and we will not loose the Markham Heritage. We will only make it diverse and attractive and more welcoming. Why shouldn’t we? Canada is a multicultural country, they took it upon them to make it different from other countries which is why Canada is loved among the rest.

    How come I don’t see an objection over an Indian Temple, Sikh Temple, Church, etc.? than why this Mosque?. We got to be ashamed of ourselves for showing such racism-like comments. This is NOT what being Canadian is all about.

    What happened at Groundzero was in US not in Canada. You cannot blame an “an individual’s” actions and/or behavior to a whole nation that he or she may come from. Everyone of us here today is different from one another. Brought up differently, with different perspectives and different religious practices. Who are “WE” to tell someone to not build something?. Come on people! wake up! really! you shock me today.

    When you refer to Muslims, are you saying that each and everyone of them is alike. NO! you are wrong, absolutely wrong. I have family-friends who are muslims and friends who are muslim. They were there for my happiness and my church. Why can’t I be in their happiness? Just because its bigger? that’s a pathetic excuse.

    “To Karen”: you said “put it somewhere else” and that it will “destroy” markham. I cannot believe that you are such racist. How come my church and/or an indian temple destroyed markham? why just the Mosque? Its an unbelievable comment.
    How about I say.. we should put you somewhere else and your believes somewhere else.. how would you feel than? Think before you speak. This is not US. This is Canada we are proud to welcome different people into this country. That’s why its number one! and will always stay number one! Regardless of such racist comments.

    I am for this Mosque and will do everything to assure its happy opening into the proud loving culture of Markham, Ont. I support my friends, my family-friends, and every culture and/or religion around me.

    go Canada! 🙂

  22. People are tired and fed-up of being discriminated by racist moslems and by other asians of various religions. It is not racist to speak up out of fear for our freedom. Multicultural does not mean one have to pander obssesively to one religion only. if one religion keep on pushing their sinster agenda, other freedom loving canadians have a right to be worried. While nobody like being excluded, one should not forced other people to accept their intolerant religious culture or their oriental culture.

  23. Canada is built on slavery of the First Nations. How can Muslims destroy Canada especially when Europeans raped the land and ethnically cleansed the First Nations. I am pretty sure that the baby boomers who lurk on this rather adolescent vomit of a blog, have only read books of consisting of more baby vomit. How can muslims be racists when Muslims are compromised of all ethnicity and different shades. There is no sinister agenda or no plans of trying to take over the world. I am pretty sure Adolf Hitler was planning on taking the Jewish citizens to the backwoods so he can teach the Jewish how to behave? Of course, Hitler had a sinister agenda but no one is quick to believe that all Germans are sinister. This rubbish non-sense about color and inferiority. Muslims are human beings, Christians are human beings, People of Judaism are human, People of Hinduism are human beings and to sum it up, we are all human beings. What is with the need to treat others less of a human being? There millions of people who go and drink and drive, do any of your go on a rant about how they are sinister and don’t care about others? Don’t bite the tongue of which you speak of vile hatred, if you are going to talk about churches then please do your research about the correlation of child molestion from Catholic Priests. Did they have a sinister idea?

  24. How other people pray and what or who they pray to is their own business but they should not impose too much on anyone who don’t agree with them or with their obssession or their extreme imposition.

  25. The problem is the theology that teaches they have the right and duty to force others to think and live the way their religion says is right, Islam is the problem and the Moslems are simply the tool it uses.

  26. As shocking and outrageous the huge majority of these comments are, I am more frightened by the absolute hatred being spewed in this forum. As a Muslim who has integrated into this society to the point of losing my own identity, I accept the sacrifice I made to achieve the quality of life Markham affords me, but am dismayed by how intolerant everyone around me seems to be regardless of that. All this, because a mosque in Markham will save me about 20 clicks when I need to go for prayers, just like a christian needs to go to service in church, a hindu needs to go to a temple, a jew to a synagogue.

    There is absolutely no correlation to be made between terrorist events anywhere in the world, as misguided and reprehensible as they are, and a mosque in Markham. Islam in general and muslims in particular, are suffering by being held hostage to the idea that since a few twisted individuals falsely interpret the word of God and as a result, inflict suffering and death on others, that the remaining millions of muslims in the world are equally murderous, bloodthirsty and evil. That, my friends, is without a doubt, not true, and everyone here knows it.

    I assume the negative comments are being made by those who live around me, by my very own next door neighbors, parent’s of kids my children attend school with. More scary, is that these sentiments will filter down to the kids in those homes, influencing and affecting the younger generation with the same poison.

    While everyone worries about what my agenda as a Muslim in Markham is, I will continue to think about remaining employed and productive, what I can do ensure my kids’ grades remain good, worry about how to keep the weeds off my lawn next summer, wonder how much Honda will charge me to fix that clicking sound in my car, hope that I don’t flood my snowblower carburator again this winter ……. and all the meaningful and meaningless things that I suspect all non-muslims in Markham also obsess about equally. Oh yes, …….. I will also worry about what it will take for mankind, in Markham and everywhere else, to smarten up and put us all on a path of peace and not war.

  27. “There is absolutely no correlation to be made between terrorist events anywhere in the world, as misguided and reprehensible as they are, and a mosque in Markham. Islam in general and muslims in particular, are suffering by being held hostage to the idea that since a few twisted individuals falsely interpret the word of God and as a result, inflict suffering and death on others, that the remaining millions of muslims in the world are equally murderous, bloodthirsty and evil. That, my friends, is without a doubt, not true, and everyone here knows it. ”

    Yes well, I guess we will have to base our judgement on:

    1. 1400 years of Islamic history and how it treats non-Muslims

    2. The effect that Islam is having on secular states world wide right now and on freedom of speech

    3. The treatment of non-Muslims on any land controlled by a large minority of Muslims or majority. This is very telling.

    4. The numerous studies that show that at a very minimum, 80% of North American mosques teach hatred of non Muslims, especially of Jews, that in fact the daily fare at them is a hate crime as defined by Canadian hate speech laws, such as they are, and the constant teaching of Islamic supremacy and desire for sharia law to replace the secular and democratic laws of Canada

    5. The actual scriptures of Islam from the koran to the reliance of the traveler.

    So you can save your indignation and your sanctimony. Thanks all the same.

    If you want peace, it is easy.

    Tell your fellow Muslims to stop attacking everyone all over the place and demanding that everyone else submit to your codes or face war.