MEMPHIS — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Horn Lake, Mississippi, in federal court, alleging the city and its board of aldermen discriminated against two Muslim men on the basis of religion in denying approval of a mosque site plan. The lawsuit argues the government officials violated the First Amendment rights of the men who want to develop the mosque, Maher Abuirshaid and Riyadh Elkhayyat. It also argues that city officials violated a federal law that gives heightened legal protections in land-use decisions to people groups that face discrimination. The lawsuit asks a judge to nullify the Horn Lake officials’ decisions and to order the city to grant the land-use request for the mosque.“A mosque is to Muslims what a church is to Christians or a synagogue is to Jewish people," said Joshua Tom, legal director at the ACLU of Mississippi. "Without a mosque, Muslims like Mr. Elkhayyat and Mr. Abuirshaid and their families cannot practice their religion as they would like and they cannot practice it fully.”Horn Lake is in DeSoto County, which is just south of Memphis, Tennessee. Abuirshaid and Elkhayyat are DeSoto County residents and want to develop a mosque so their families and other Muslim families in DeSoto County will have a place to worship without having to drive a half-hour or more to Memphis.“A local mosque is critical for my family and the Muslim community in DeSoto County to practice our religion,” Abuirshaid said in a news release. The suit is being filed by the ACLU, the ACLU of Mississippi and New York City-based Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. In April, Horn Lake's board of aldermen voted 5-1 to uphold the city’s planning commission’s decision to deny approval of the site plan. Aldermen cited insufficient water mains for fire sprinklers, the fear that the building would break the noise ordinance and that it would be a traffic hazard as reasons for opposing the application. The denial was made even though the mosque site plan met or exceeded all requirements to be built and although the piece of property was zoned for a house of worship.“The Board’s unsubstantiated reasons for denial of the site plan were pretextual," reads the lawsuit. "The Board’s decision was based on an anti-Muslim animus and discrimination.”Latimer, the mayor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Violations of the law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (known as RLUIPA) have resulted in lawsuits brought by the Department of Justice and sometimes settlements of millions of dollars. The law states: “No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person, including a religious assembly or institution,” unless the government can demonstrate that it has a “compelling governmental interest” in the regulation and there is no less-burdensome method of meeting that interest.
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Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/03/mississippi-horn-lake-mosque-muslim-lawsuit-aclu/6275722001/
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