‘He presented a gun’: Dispute over Islamic mosque turns violent at New Mexico Catholic parish

A public dispute over the construction of an Islamic mosque in Albuquerque, New Mexico, boiled over into violence earlier this month when a local resident reportedly drew a gun during an altercation with an employee of a Catholic parish.

Father Vincent Paul Chávez, the pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Parish in Albuquerque, told EWTN News that the violent incident on July 22 came after several weeks of tension in the community stemming in part from the priest’s open support of a proposed 45,000-square-foot mosque that would be built several miles away from the parish.

Chávez said he spoke at a county meeting on July 1 in support of the construction of the mosque. In remarks he provided to EWTN News, the priest said at the meeting that he would “love” if the mosque were built next to the Catholic parish.

He referred to the Islamic religion as “noble Islam” and as “a religion of Abraham as are Christianity and Judaism.”

“Let us not be influenced by ignorance and racism,” the priest said at the meeting. “We have freedom of religion in these United States.”

Chávez said one attendee filmed his remarks and posted the video to social…