The panel discussion “Panic Intersecting: Mosques, Zoning, and Islamophobia” was held at Silk Road Rising on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. The panel featured zoning specialist and attorney Mark Daniel, DuPage County Board Member Tony Michelassi, and Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) Trial Attorney Phil Robertson. Moderated by Artistic Director Jamil Khoury, the panelists discussed their experiences with mosque zoning disputes in the Chicagoland area and the motivations behind them. This event created a broader understanding of the difficulties facing the Muslim American community in their wish to exercise their religious freedom and provided more context for our upcoming world premiere of Jamil Khoury’s Mosque Alert.
