SOPHIA to Pray, Show Support for Mosque Saturday

A second group of interfaith leaders is throwing its support behind construction of a mosque in Brookfield, planning to meet at the mosque site Saturday to endorse the project.

SOPHIA, a congregation-based community organization, will travel to the site at 16650 and 16730 W. Pheasant Dr. at about 11:30 a.m. after its Annual Prayer Breakfast Saturday. 

Twenty-two members of the Brookfield Elm Grove Interfaith Network (BEGIN) recently supporting the mosque project.

Rev. Jim Stein, a member of SOPHIA’s Religious Leaders Caucus and pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Pewaukee, said Muslim families deserve a closer place to worship than their downtown Milwaukee mosque.

"We know these people. They are our friends," Stein said. "There is nothing to be afraid of as they build a new worship space in Waukesha County."

Rev. Gary Liedtke, pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Waukesha and member of SOPHIA’s Religious Leaders Caucus, said, "Our faith implores us not only to refrain from building walls that divide, but to tear down walls that separate."

The city will hold a public informational meeting on the mosque request at 5 p.m. May 2 in the Courtroom of the Public Safety Building at 2100 N. Calhoun Rd. Residents can comment on the proposal at a public hearing at 6 p.m. May 7 in the Common Council chambers at , 2000 N. Calhoun Rd.

• For more on the mosque, see Patch's past stories.

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