Judge dismisses most of suit challenging Tennessee mosque

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (ABP) – A judge has thrown out most of a lawsuit
seeking to halt construction of a mosque on the outskirts of
Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Chancellor Robert Corlew III ruled this week that 17 plaintiffs
challenging zoning approval for construction of a new Islamic Center of
Murfreesboro failed to prove they are being harmed by the project, the Daily News Journal reported.

The lawsuit,
filed last September, claimed plaintiffs “have been and will be
irreparably harmed by the risk of terrorism generated by proselytizing
for Islam and teaching the practices of Sharia law.

At a county commission meeting last August, some of the plaintiffs
warned about dangers of Islamic law “including but not limited to death
edicts to apostates, death edicts to homosexuals, death edicts to women
who have been subject to rape, allowance of youth brides, amongst other
reprehensible sections.”

“We must note that, under the law, the Plaintiffs have not demonstrated a
loss different from that which is common to all citizens of Rutherford
County,” Corlew wrote in his ruling. “That Islam is a religion has been
proven in this case. That the county ordinance allows construction of a
church or place of meeting within a residential planning zone as a
matter of right in this case is further undisputed.”

The only part of the lawsuit left standing is a question of whether the
Rutherford County Regional Planning Commission gave adequate notice
before approving the mosque’s site plan under Tennessee’s Sunshine Law.
County officials opted to advertise the meeting in the Murfreesboro Post, a free weekly newspaper that plaintiffs contend does not meet qualifications for a “newspaper of general circulation.”

Soon after the vote, someone vandalized a sign at the construction site
announcing it as home of the future mosque by painting the message “Not
Welcome” over it. In June the sign was vandalized a second time, this
time slashed in two. In August four pieces of heavy equipment at the
site were doused with an accelerant and burned.

Imam Ossama Bahloul said he hopes the judge’s decision will allow the community to move forward in peace.

“It is obvious that we are the ones being harmed,” he told NBC affiliate television station WSMV. “We had arson. We had vandalism.”

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has been a part of the city’s
religious community for many years, but plans to relocate from
overcrowded facilities inside the city limits to a 15-acre campus --
with plans
for mega-church style amenities like athletic fields, a gym and a
swimming pool -- raising questions about possible sources of outside
funding.

Mosque opponents at a court hearing last fall argued that Islam isn’t a
religion at all, but rather a political system aimed toward world
domination. The dispute has garnered widespread media attention,
including a recent hour-long documentary on CNN.