First "Open Mosque" Now A "Closed Mosque"

Once again, bureaucracy wins the battle.

image courtesy of BBC.com

Remember the article I posted a couple of days ago about the pro-gay mosque in South Africa? Yeah, the one that accepts people "from all religions and sexual orientations." Well, as it turns out, it has been temporarily closed due to violations of municipal by-laws.

The provision stipulates that a place of worship is required to have one parking slot per 10 worshippers on the premises. The open mosque allegedly had none. Paperwork could take up to six months to finish.

City councillor Ganief Hendricks has this to say: "This is an emotive issue - some councillors who are Muslim would want to defend the issue more vigorously than those that aren't but the bottom line is we have to make sure that the rules are followed. There are issues of health and safety to consider before [a mosque] is set up." He claims that there was no application to change a warehouse building into a mosque.

image courtesy of BBC.com

Sounds a little fishy, but it also sounds like something that could happen anywhere. Let's give the local government the benefit of the doubt and try to believe that there are no ulterior motives behind their enforcement. Rules, after all, are made for a reason. No matter how silly they may sound. I'm sure they strictly enforce their laws across the board without discrimination or bias (that was hard to type).

Hopefully, it doesn't take the full 6 months to iron out the confusion.