it is the local government that faces down a concerted anti-mosque movement as elected officials who know their Constitution fight local bigotry.
But not in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The Township Council there is beefing up its legal team to stop a proposed mosque. It is confronting a lawsuit filed by a Muslim group alleging religious discrimination in a zoning battle over the proposed mosque.
The Al Falah Center filed its suit in April in federal district court in New Jersey, claiming that a township zoning ordinance was drafted with the sole purpose of preventing the group from turning a former 7.6-acre banquet hall property into a house of worship.
The case has caught the attention of the US Justice Department, which has told the township to hand over copies of zoning documents and reports as part of an investigation into whether officials may have violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.
A federal judge this summer denied the township’s motion to dismiss the mosque’s suit.
Bridgewater is in South Jersey and is a suburb of Philadelphia.
The zoning ordinance in question came after months of bitter Planning Board and council meetings, in which residents complained the mosque would overwhelm the tree-lined community with traffic. This is a standard objection of community groups opposing mosques.
Mosque opponents were aided by Somerset County Tea Party founder Jim Lefkowitz, who used his website to encourage people to attend meetings and donate money to the Bridgewater group fighting the mosque application.
Lefkowitz, who denied religion was factor in the mosque debate, asked at one meeting whether the group had ties to a terrorist organization, which the group denied.