Posted on November 4, 2021 / in Articles, Controversial Issues

ACLU files suit against Horn Lake over rejection of mosque site plan

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the City of Horn Lake in federal court, alleging that 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 complaint, which also targets Mayor Allen Latimer, alleges that the city violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the First Amendment by denying zoning approval for a proposed 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. “The city of Horn Lake has 13 churches. DeSoto County has 132 churches. There are no mosques in Horn Lake or DeSoto County. 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.”

Concept art shows the front entry for Abraham House of God, a mosque proposed for Horn Lake.

The suit is being filed by the ACLU, the ACLU of Mississippi and New York City-based Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

The ACLU’s clients, business partners Maher Abuirshaid and Riyadh Elkhayyat, who also goes by Ray Elk, are both Southaven residents.

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.

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.

American Civil Liberties Union client Riyadh Elkhayyat, who also goes by Ray Elk, address media in Horn Lake on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021.

Aldermen opposing the building 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 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.

“Each of those four prongs were violated by the city of Horn Lake in denying the permit to build the mosque,” said Jonathan Youngwood, an attorney with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. “What should have been an uncomplicated approval of the site plan for Abraham House of God foundered with historic anti-Muslim bias.”

In May, several experts on the law told The Commercial Appeal that Horn Lake’s rejection of the mosque was likely a violation of that federal law.

“Here, denying a permit to build a mosque because of explicit and thinly veiled anti-Muslim bias is a clear violation of RLUIPA,” Tom said. “Also treating a mosque differently from the tens of other churches in Horn Lake and over 100 of other churches in DeSoto County is also a violation of RLUIPA, because it treats a mosque differently than churches.”

It also violates the First Amendment since “they clearly denied this permit because the permit is to build a mosque,” Tom said.

It’s important to point out some of the anti-Muslim statements made by aldermen when they denied the permit, Tom said.

In an interview with The Commercial Appeal in May, former alderman John Jones Jr. told The Commercial Appeal, “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.”

And in a meeting, he said, “If you let them build it, they will come. I think we need to stop it before it gets here.”

According to the lawsuit, one resident wrote in a Facebook group in which an alderman was a member, “This is wrong on so many levels. They are supposed to assimilate to our country, not us to theirs.” Another resident responded, “they will never assimilate. Their religion is to take over and kill the infidel. That’s us.”

And, in a Board of Aldermen meeting, one speaker said, “they are not subject to our laws, they’re subject to their laws.”

Not having a mosque in the area means the plaintiffs and their families are not able to practice their religion fully, unable to teach their children about Islam, unable to attend Friday prayers and unable to fully participate in observances of Islamic holidays, Tom said.

“Particularly in Mississippi, where Islam is not as prevalent as in other parts of the country and certainly not as prevalent as Christianity, a mosque is the equivalent of a church for a Christian and equally important for the practice of Islam,” Tom said.

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2021/11/03/aclu-files-suit-against-horn-lake-over-rejection-mosque-site-plan/6198495001/

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