when a federal judge intervened to overturn a local court order locking the congregation out of the mosque.
The ruling by US District Judge Todd Campbell gives the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro the right to complete its inspection process, the final hurdle before opening, thus reversing a Rutherford County court’s June injunction.
That county court said county officials did not adequately notify the public about the mosque’s construction plans before voting to allow the mosque to be built. The federal court overturned that ruling.
After the federal ruling, the mosque’s imam, Ossama Bahloul, said: “We are here to celebrate the freedom of religion and that the concept of liberty is a fact existing in this nation.”
Attorney Luke Goodrich with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the mosque in the suit, called the ruling a victory for people of all faiths.
But opponents objected to what they called a lack of notice about Wednesday’s court actions just as they earlier complained about a lack of notice before the County Planning Commission approved the mosque.
Since mosque construction began in 2010, the building has been at the center of a dispute over whether the public was adequately notified about the site’s construction. However, opponents made clear in court hearings that they also opposed the practice of Islam.
Last Wednesday’s decision affirms that indeed proper public notice was granted, contrary to the local court decision, which submitted that the mosque should be subjected to “heightened legal standard” due to the “tremendous public interest” surrounding the mosque.
Both the Rutherford County government and the federal district court have sided with the Muslim congregation. A vocal minority in the county fought tooth and nail to stop the mosque from being built.
The local or chancery court tossed out the opponents’ arguments against Islam, but said the mosque could not be opened because the county didn’t give the public sufficient notice that it was taking up the matter in a public hearing. The county fought that ruling because it gave that meeting that same type of public notice it gives all other county government meetings and feared the chancery court ruling could endanger years of decisions.
The federal court decision now ends all those hassles—unless the mosque opponents try to take the case up a level to the US Circuit Court of Appeals.
