A man who lives next door to a newly opened mosque has posted a sign on his front lawn that reads "Bomb Making Next Driveway."
Michael Heick lives next door to the Jaffarya Center, along a high-traffic road in Amherst, N.Y., which is a suburb of Buffalo.
Heick said he put up the sign last weekend because he was frustrated with how the mosque and town handled his complaints that it was too close to his property and that its bright lights violate town code.
"The place is too close. I don't care what people think. It doesn't matter what people think," he told the Buffalo News.
Muslim leaders are upset over the sign.
Mosque officials said the sign's message is offensive and that Heick hasn't responded to their requests for a meeting.
"I would really think it's an incitement of hatred against Muslims," said Dr. Syed Jaffri, an Amherst psychiatrist and member of the mosque's board of trustees. "Law enforcement should take it very seriously. Tomorrow, somebody could say, 'Oh they have weapons,' and people believe it."
Mubarak Abidi, mosque president, said he called Amherst police over the weekend about the sign and was told its posting wasn't illegal.
