By Debbie Schlussel

Imagine this:  You’ve worked hard all of your life.  You’ve managed to pay off your house in an upwardly mobile Detroit area suburb, and you plan to live there for the rest of it.  But, suddenly, Muslims buy the home next door and turn it into a mosque, right smack-dab in the middle of your neighborhood and next door to you.  But, wait, it gets worse, the mosque members want to transform the front lawn and driveway into a parking lot.  And soon, very soon, they will insist of broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer at all hours of the day and night.  And you will have to see a crowded parking lot next door and hear the call to prayer falsely claiming that allah is the only god.

Well, if you are Bent and Renee Boving, ages 89 and 81, respectively, and the other residents of a Northville, Michigan neighborhood, you don’t have to imagine it.  It’s a nightmare that’s very real.

Sadly, and predictably, Northville Township authorities are cowering and are set to to grant the Muslims and their mosque extraordinary variances to do all of this.  It’s happening all over America.  When neighbors oppose these monstrosities in the middle of their neighborhoods, as Warren, Michigan residents did several years ago, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Justice Department breathe down officials’ necks and warn that opposing the mosques and refusing to grant them special privileges will result in federal lawsuits forcing it down their throats.

Mohammad Usman wants Muslims in Novi and the Northville communities to have a convenient place to pray.

Many Muslims in the area travel to Canton or Farmington Hills if they want to attend daily prayers.

So sad, too bad. So, they have to drive 15 minutes. My heart bleeds. That’s the price of faith. It’s not supposed to be easy . . . unless it’s Islam and the religion is trying to assert itself on everyone else.

But the location of the Meadowbrook Islamic Center, at 41885 Eight Mile in Northville Township, has some neighbors complaining. The center, which is not yet in use, is in a residential area and occupies a single-family home. Some neighbors also are opposed to the center’s plans to create a parking lot on the front lawn.

“We’re being invaded,” said Bent Boving, 89, from his home next door. “I’m vigorously opposed to this.”

Boving and his wife, Renee Boving, 81, said their opposition isn’t based on religion. Instead, the couple say they foresee problems from traffic, vehicle pollution and noise.

“We have no problems with diversity,” Renee Boving said.

Neighbor Steve McGuirk, 53, agreed. “The biggest thing is they want to take the whole front yard up with a parking lot.”

Jennifer Frey, community development director for Northville Township, said about 150 residents attended a Nov. 18 meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals on the issue.

At the meeting, the center, which bought the home in June, was requesting two variances. One would allow it to build a 42-space parking lot; the other deals with the house’s proximity to the road.

Normally, such a parking lot would have to be behind the building, but township officials said there is not enough room. The zoning board, which asked that the center consider a smaller parking lot, tabled action until Dec. 16.

Uh, yeah, there usually isn’t enough room for a parking lot on a lot for a home in the middle of a residential neighborhood. That’s not rocket science. Here’s an idea for these arrogant Muslims: try buying a lot in an area zoned for business, instead of asserting your religion–and a parking lot–on a quiet residential neighborhood.

Usman said some days prayers could draw as many as 100 people. Usman, a township resident since 1996 who chairs the center’s Board of Trustees, said the impact on the lives of those nearby would be minimal.

Minimal? You live in a quiet middle-class neighborhood and, five times a day, you could have 100 cars parked all over the front lawn, next door, and on your street? That’s “minimal”? Hate to see what “maximal” would be. And it won’t just be 100 cars. The traffic will grow and more and more Muslims come to this mosque, this country, and are born into high birth-rate Muslim families.

“We are very peaceful people,” he said. “We will not do anything to do harm to the community.”

He dismissed concerns from neighbors that the center would institute the Muslim call to prayer, a public broadcast of which had been a contentious issue at mosques in Hamtramck and elsewhere.

“Peaceful”?  Notice that he “dismissed” the concerns about the call to prayer, but didn’t commit that the mosque won’t do it. And, ultimately, it certainly will. I hope the people in this neighborhood enjoy waking up as early as 4:30 in the morning and, at the same time, staying up as late as 11:00 p.m. The Bovings will hear it loud and clear, since they live right next door.

Good luck with that.  So, when do the minarets go up?