This isn't quite your typical no-go zone. For one thing it was supposed to be a retirement community. And the Muslims in question are Ahmadis. But nonetheless it shows how Islamic migration continues to raise serious questions.
Dueling legal complaints and allegations of Islamophobia have marred an unfinished retirement community in Maryland after homes were sold only to Muslims.
That last part is a problem.
"This will be a community of 49 spacious brand new homes (Villas) for Ahmadi Muslims with a dedicated mosque within walking distance," read a website advertising the community earlier this year. That language was later removed, replaced with an update that touted an "audio feed from the adjacent mosque" for the daily call to prayer - before that language also came down.
So the development was only intended for Muslims. And that rubbed some local Americans the wrong way.
Some elected officials and residents, however, complained, saying the planned community violated fair housing laws. Others questioned whether their town should open its arms to a neighborhood initially designed for Muslims.
Real estate agent Gina Pimentel filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last month, claiming she couldn't get information about the River Run units because Younus was "unlawfully privately marketing and selling only to Ahmadi Muslims."
In an interview, Pimentel said she is not worried about Muslims living in the community, but about her business. She can't earn a commission if she can't sell homes, she said, and she was also concerned that lenders charging market interest rates might be cut out by Islamic rules against usury.
Now, frankly, I think a lot of these laws are only dubiously legal. And that people should be able to do what they want with their own property. But the left wants these laws. And they have to apply across the board.
The meeting occasionally grew heated. One man wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt challenged Younus about the definition of "jihad."
"Jihad is a war on the infidel and I am the infidel," he said. (The man declined to give his name to The Washington Post, calling it the "lying press.")
Fact check: Accurate in all respects.
Younus was joined at the firehouse by Mansoor Shams, an Ahmadi Muslim from Baltimore. He said he's patient with questioners, but bristles when people insist the Koran is a violent text.
"It's such a disrespect to me and my [Marine] uniform," Shams said. "If you ask a question, at least take my word for it."
Just take my word for it. That's not how that works.
Younus will host additional meetings at the firehouse to try to convince the mostly white residents nearby that River Run is not a threat - and that anyone in the community can move there if they wish. Twenty-seven properties, he pointed out, remain on the market.
"This is not an exclusive community," he said. "The only way you can prove me wrong is to buy a house there."
Except, supposedly, he already had all the buyers he needed. So where does the truth lie?
