The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), a group based in Topeka, Kansas known for protesting military funerals and for their vocal anti-gay and anti-Islamic agenda is coming to Wayland on Friday December 3 to protest at the Islamic Center of Boston from 7:50 to 8:20 am.

UPDATED: The Islamic Center of Boston plans not to “respond to WBC’s demonstration at our center in kind. We hope and pray that they can find better uses for their time, resources and energies… we are advising people to stay away from the center during this time and completely ignore the activities of this group.” (Source: WickedLocal Wayland)

The protest in Wayland is part of a larger trip the group has organized to the region. They will also be making stops in Framingham, Waltham, and Cambridge.

The main reason for their trip to Massachusetts is to protest outside Framingham High School, whose theater department is showcasing the play “The Laramie Project.” The play premiered in 2000 and is based on reactions to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay 19-year-old University of Wyoming student whose body was found mutilated in Laramie, Wyoming.

The play tackles the subject of homophobia in modern culture, and whether or not Shepard’s murder was a hate-crime.

The WBC refers to the Framingham production as “fag propaganda” on their site.

The Westboro Baptist Church has made national news many times over the past decade and are most famous for picketing outside soldiers’ funerals with signs that read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”

The WBC also plans to make stops at the Brandeis University Hillel in Waltham, and the Harvard Hillel in Cambridge later Friday morning.

Many Wayland students are organizing a protest of the WBC’s presence at the mosque and their presence in Wayland.

Senior Carter Paul has organized a group on Facebook for students to make a peaceful counter protest.

UPDATE: Paul has renamed the Facebook Event “Fundraiser at the Islamic Center of Boston.” The event is no longer meant as a counter-protest. Organizers plan to send donations to the International AIDS Foundation, the Islamic Center of Boston, and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth Group Network of Massachusetts. These are organizations and causes the WBC frequently protests. Donors will be asked to sign a card that Paul intends to send to the WBC, thanking them for “the awareness it brings to the community.”

“Instead of just yelling at them, we are planning on raising money for groups that the WBC specifically target,” explained Paul.

Many Wayland students agree that the WBC picketing is not in the best interests of the general public.

“They’re just putting people down,” said junior Abby Kretowicz. “Everyone has rights; gays, bisexuals, straights, Christians, Jews, Muslims etc… For them to do this outside a mosque is both rude and disrespectful.”

“They probably shouldn’t be coming to Wayland, mainly because most people don’t like them,” said freshman Marcus Daisy.

“I think they are crazy, just crazy,” said junior Michela Luchetti.

“I know they have rights like everyone else,” said sophomore Ben Haspel, “but picketing outside a soldier’s funeral is just wrong.”

“I feel that these people are delusional,” said protest organizer Carter Paul. “I want to overpower their negative message with our positive one.”

[polldaddy poll=4184738]