News

by Susannah Griffee

A group seeking to build a mosque in Bridgewater, N.J. has sued the township for changing zoning laws to prevent the project.

The Al Falah Center says it worked with township officials for months to create a plan to renovate a former banquet center to be its new mosque and Islamic community center.

But the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law says the township quickly changed zoning laws, which had permitted houses of worship in the area, effectively blocking the project.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Trenton this week, the center alleges that in changing the zoning rules to exclude the mosque, Bridgewater violated Al Falah’s constitutional rights under the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and a number of federal and state statutes.

The suit accuses town officials of bowing to pressure from protesters and an anti-mosque Internet campaign.

Bridgewater did not return repeated requests for comment.

According to Ken Kimerling, the legal director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Bridgewater has faced a religious freedom suit before.

“Bridgewater was previously sued by an Indian temple for similar practices,” said Kimerling. “That matter was settled, and the temple is now in existence.”

“Municipalities and counties throughout the country have used their zoning powers to bar churches and other houses of worship,” said Kimerling. “It’s a problem that is constant in this country.”

The town of Bridgewater is already home to 17 churches, a convent, a Jewish synagogue, two Hindu temples, and one Sikh temple, but no mosques.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NJ-Township-Blocks-Construction-of-Mosque-120813379.html