FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Controversies Over Mosques and Islamic Centers Across the U.S.

This interactive map provides a brief overview, based on news reports, of 35 proposed mosques and Islamic centers that have encountered community resistance in the last two years.

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RECOMMENDED CITATION

Pew Research Center, September 2012, "Controversies Over Mosques and Islamic Centers Across the U.S."

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Table of contents

Controversies Over Mosques and Islamic Centers Across the U.S.

This interactive map provides a brief overview, based on news reports, of 35 proposed mosques and Islamic centers that have encountered community resistance in the last two years.

This interactive map shows the locations of 53 proposed mosques and Islamic centers that have encountered community resistance in recent years. Click on a location for a brief overview of the project based on news reports. In many cases, the opposition has centered on neighbors’ concerns about traffic, noise, parking and property values – the same objections that often greet churches and other houses of worship as well as commercial construction projects. In some communities, however, opponents of mosques also have cited fears about Islam, sharia law and terrorism.

While the map shows only projects that have met resistance, many mosques and Islamic centers have been built in recent years with little or no opposition. See, for example, an article in the Chattanooga Free Press about a mosque that opened in August 2012 in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Hyperlinks to news sources cited are provided whenever possible, but some articles are no longer available online.

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