Proposed Muslim Cemetery Topic Of Farmersville Town Hall
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FARMERSVILLE (CBSDFW.COM) - It has been the source of confusion, anger and some say misconceptions. Now, the City of Farmersville is hosting a town hall meeting to discuss a proposal to build a Muslim cemetery.
Dozens of residents are expected to attend Tuesday night's meeting at Farmersville High School. The topic of building the cemetery, which would be operated by the Islamic Association of Collin County (IACC), has garnered so much emotion that threats have been made against two members of the planning and zoning committee. Police are investigating those threats.
The city has also put together a fact sheet on the project that includes one bullet point that says -
"There is no training facility planned for this site."
Three weeks ago, several Farmersville residents spoke out about their concerns during a city council meeting. Some were downright angry about the idea. Speaking about the 35 acres of undeveloped land in Collin County, just east of Lake Lavon and south of Highway 380, resident Mont Hendrick said, "We used to grow onions here. We sure enough don't want to be growing bodies."
When residents showed up to oppose the cemetery last month, Alia Salem, with the Council on American Islamic Relations of Dallas, said people in the small town of 3,000, "… are fearful of what they don't understand and hopefully it's an opportunity for us to come together and learn a little bit more about each other and hopefully dispel some of those misconceptions."
One person on Tuesday night's panel is an American-born employee of the IACC, Khalil Abdul-Rashid. He told the Farmersville Times that he has a personal motivation for building the cemetery in Collin County, because when his 12-year-old daughter died of cancer she was buried in Dallas and he would have preferred having her buried closer to his Plano home.
Ben White, the Farmersville city manager, told CBS 11 News that he is hoping the meeting will give people a chance to understand the situation. He said, "Farmersville is a beautiful town and we love our town. I do hope that just by getting knowledge out there, and accurate information will help with this."
The town hall meeting is open to the public and will be held from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. at Farmersville High School, located at 499 State Highway 78 North. White says city leaders are prepared for the meeting to possibly last longer than two hours.
There is no vote planned for Tuesday night. While a lot of information, including what the city legally can and can't do, is on the city website, the town hall will give people a chance to ask questions and hear answers in person.
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