ALBUQUERQUE — The song was short and had few words, but its message resounded.
Clutching red roses, faith leaders sung “Peace, Salaam, Shalom” — written in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — at St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Catholic Church in Albuquerque, where they gathered to decry violence and emphasize the importance of religious diversity.
The gathering, held behind locked doors due to safety concerns, followed an incident at the church last week in which a man was suspected of confronting its priest and brandishing a gun.
The Rev. Vincent Chávez had voiced support at a Bernalillo County Planning Commission meeting earlier this month for a proposed mosque and educational center in the North Valley. The project, planned by the Albuquerque Islamic Center, has drawn some criticism that has, at times, involved Islamophobic rhetoric.
At Wednesday evening’s event, seven leaders from across religions, including Chávez, described the alleged threat last week — in which 72-year-old David Romero was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — as a symptom of a larger issue.
“Catholics are a majority faith in New Mexico,” Chávez said. “If I, the privileged one, was assaulted, I cannot imagine what our Muslim and Jewish sisters and brothers go through. Our humanity has to do better.”
Chávez spoke at a contentious July 1 meeting, where the Planning Commission rejected an appeal of a conditional use permit for the Albuquerque Islamic Center’s mosque, school and parking area. The meeting had been postponed from the previous month after the center received threats.
The controversy prompted Archbishop John C. Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe to publicly support the mosque in a statement Monday, in which he said Muslims “have the same God‑given and constitutionally protected right to worship freely as every other faith community, including our own.”
Wester also said anti-Muslim sentiment “has no place in the heart of a Christian” and is “incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who commands us to love our neighbor without exception.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations — a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights and advocacy organization — released a statement Tuesday welcoming Wester’s remarks.
“The freedom to worship is a fundamental and inalienable right of every American and every human being,” said Ibrahim Hooper, the group’s national spokesperson.
“As anti-Muslim bigotry rises throughout our nation, people of conscience and faith must stand together to encourage mutual respect,” he added.
The incident at the Albuquerque church comes after vandalism in June at two Albuquerque Jewish organizations and a May shooting at a San Diego mosque where three people were killed, including a security guard who confronted the two attackers. A man faces federal hate crime charges in connection with the vandalism.
Marciel Romero, president of the board of the Albuquerque Jewish congregation Nahalat Shalom, spoke at the news conference Wednesday, describing anti-religious sentiment as a “cycle.”
“We can’t address Jewish hate until we address Muslim hate until we address Christian hate,” he said.
The Islamic Center had purchased property for its mosque, 3.6 acres off Second Street, from a local family.
“It is a place filled with memories of family gatherings, orchards, acequias and neighbors helping neighbors,” said Jerome Chavez, a former heir to the land who is not related to Vincent Chávez. He is pursuing his doctorate in Chicana and Chicano studies at the University of New Mexico.
“Because that land means so much to me, I want to say clearly: I support building this mosque,” Jerome Chavez said. “Some people have tried to make this project about fear of Islam, but fear of religion is not a zoning issue.”
Shannon Chavez Qureshi — Jerome Chavez’s sister — said in an interview Monday the land originally belonged to her grandparents, Libby and David Chavez, a military veteran and survivor of the Bataan Death March.
Chavez Qureshi, who converted to Islam before marrying her husband, who also is Muslim, said the land sale dragged on for years because of community pushback and then exploded into the public consciousness.
Now a resident of Los Angeles, Chavez Qureshi said when she wears a headscarf on the way to Friday prayers, people will sometimes shout at her out of their car windows.
“There’s just always so much hate and fear against Muslims, and I know that that’s not new to our country,” she said. “But I thought, ‘New Mexico’s different.’ ”
She hopes people who are skeptical of the mosque project will take the time to listen to members of the Islamic Center about their vision. One of the first things she did after converting to Islam was take her Catholic mother to visit a mosque, she noted.
“I remember her words when we left; she’s like, ‘Oh, it’s not that different from how we pray,’ ” Chavez Qureshi recalled. “… The more we learn, the more you realize that we’re all similar.”
Jerome Chavez said in an interview his family has not received any threats tied to the project — but he is disturbed by the attacks others have faced.
“I was a little surprised about the reaction to this, but I’m not really shocked, just with the climate that this country is in right now,” he said. He believes anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment at the national level has emboldened people.
Despite the backlash, Chavez encouraged others to support the mosque project: “Don’t give in to this fear.”
Lucia Castro Smith, who is part of the St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Catholic Church community, attended Wednesday’s news conference “to show support for diversity and religious freedom,” she said.
“I am from Guatemala, so I am one of the people that is different around here,” she said. “And I think people in general should see that we are opposed to hate and to division among people. It could be because of race, it could be because of religion.”
She added, “When we talk to each other, we realize that we are closer than we think.”
