CityNews – Around 50 local villagers are protesting the construction of a mosque in Nong Hoi sub-district. The most recently assembled at Wat Sao Hin’s hall and signed their name to protest against the construction of a mosque in the area, on August 17th.
According to Captain Damrong Wongcharoen, the representative of the villagers, Manas Prathan, the owner of the land, and Al-farooq Foundation, a religion school, had earlier planned to build the mosque at the centre of the village. The villagers once protested and submitted documents to the head of the district to halt the construction and Manas cancelled the project for a period of time.
However, he recently brought up the project again, planning to build a residence building instead of the mosque, added Captain Damrong.
Yet the building plan still looks like a mosque. Hence, the villagers thought it was unclear.
From most of the villagers’ point of view, building anything related to religions should ask for public hearing first in order to let villagers know and get their approval, says Manas.
He added that the villagers themselves are not against any religions coming to the village as there is every religion – Buddhist, Christian, Islamic — in the village. The protest of the mosque is due to its location at the centre of the village, which is already relatively crowded. Therefore, the villagers think it is appropriate to voice their concerns.