Author: Yolanda Woodlee

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501401.html

Bill Aiken was in a Buddhist peace march on the eve of the Iraq war, walking down Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington, when he saw a "For Sale" sign on a vacant Embassy Row lot.

He thought the site would be ideal for Soka Gakkai International-USA to build a center for about 400 Buddhist worshipers who meet just outside the city in Mount Rainier.

Now, two years after SGI, a U.S. Buddhist association, bought the $2 million property and six months after it began construction, the project faces opposition from residents who are challenging the definition of the center as a house of worship.