A judge ordered the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a federal lawsuit against a town in Mississippi over a rejected zoning request for a mosque, to handle the matter privately.
The ACLU sued the town of Horn Lake and Mayor Allen Latimer over evidence that officials had disingenuously rejected a mosque’s zoning requests. The town’s board of aldermen had denied the mosque’s approval, and the ACLU has cited evidence that shows the denial of the mosque was driven by anti-Muslim discrimination.
Now, a federal judge is telling both parties to settle the affair privately.
“This court directs that the parties consult with its staff regarding the setting of such a hearing,” wrote District Court Judge Michael Mills in an order. “And it encourages defendants to carefully consider their legal position in light of the allegations set forth in the Complaint.”
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Mills suggested that Horn Lake enter into “settlement negotiations” to resolve the matter if the allegations are true. If both parties decline to do so, the court will proceed as requested.
The suit was previously filed Wednesday morning by the ACLU, the ACLU of Mississippi, and New York City-based firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. It would be considered by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
“The city’s decision was clearly motivated by anti-Muslim bigotry,” claimed ACLU of Mississippi Legal Director Josh Tom in a press release. “People of every faith should have a safe place to practice their religion, and we intend to make sure that’s the case in Horn Lake and DeSoto County.”
The ACLU alleges that the denial of the mosque’s zoning approval breaches the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. This act states that “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 it has a “compelling governmental interest” in the regulation.
The lawsuit also alleges that the rejection of the mosque was a violation of the First Amendment.
Riyadh Elkhayyat and Maher Abuirshaid, two Muslim residents of Horn Lake, spent two years designing their mosque with the hope of not needing to drive out of the county to attend religious services.
“Without a local mosque, my family and I cannot practice our religion as we would like,” Abuirshaid said during the ACLU press conference. “We are often unable to attend Friday prayer, afternoon prayer services. We are unable to fully practice observance and celebration of Islamic holidays, including evening prayer services during the holy month of Ramadan.”
The plan was rejected by a 5-1 vote from the board of aldermen, with members claiming to do so for technical reasons such as a lack of water mains for fire sprinklers or concerns about noise ordinances.
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However, anti-Muslim motivations became clear when then-Alderman John Jones Jr. told the local paper, “I don’t care what they say. Their religion says they can lie or do anything to the Jews or Gentiles because we’re not Muslims.”
Jones would later state in a public meeting, “If you let them build it, they will come. I think we need to stop it before it gets here.”
Another alderman would admit during a public meeting, “We stepped over the line of violating not only discriminatory rights because they’re Muslims, and also their freedom of religion.”
Representatives from the ACLU and Horn Lake have not responded to Mills’s order.
