The Islamic Society of Basking Ridge sued after its proposal was rejected after 39 public hearings.
NEWARK -- The national American Civil Liberties Union is joining a host of religious groups supporting a Muslim community suing Bernards Township over the denial of a proposal to build a mosque.
The ACLU's Program on Freedom and Belief, the ACLU of New Jersey and Muslim Advocates joined a friend-of-the-court brief filed this week by a coalition of religious organizations supporting the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge. Fifteen other religious organizations also signed onto the filing by Muslim Advocates.
An artist's rendering of the rejected mosque. (Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler)On Wednesday, a diverse coalition of religious groups, led by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, filed the friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the society.
Altogether, 34 organizations have lined up in support of the society.
The society sued Bernards Township, its Township Committee and planning board in March after planners denied its plan to build a mosque after 39 hearings over nearly four years. The society's lawsuit says the township created arbitrary rules to block the proposal because of anti-Islamic sentiment in violation of its Constitutional rights as well as federal religious land-use law.
"Behind each hollow excuse used to deny the Islamic Society's application lurks an undeniable motive: discrimination based on religion," said ACLU of New Jersey Executive Director Udi Ofer. "The congregants of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge have the fundamental right to worship freely, as all Americans do. By moving the goal posts for members of one faith only, the Bernards planning board has engaged in the worst kind of NIMBYism," he said, using the acronym for "not in my backyard."
Orthodox group sues over zoning denial
The township has denied the allegations, saying the society's application did not conform with land-use regulations.
Mayor Carol Bianchi charged that the organizations don't know the township's side of the story.
"The groups who seek to file amicus briefs know nothing about the facts of this case, as is evident from the absence of any reference to the specific land-use issues before our planning board," she said. "It is very disconcerting that organizations like these would jump into a controversy without any interest in the facts. It points out a real concern for me that, in America, laws intended to protect individuals against true discrimination are being abused, and organizations which purport to protect against discrimination are fostering division in our country."
Bianchi also said the federal land-use law was written "to be a shield to protect religious entities from discrimination, not as a sword to bludgeon planning boards into approving flawed land-use applications."
A federal judge in Trenton will rule next month on the organizations' request to join the suit.
In the meantime, the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the society's rights were violated in the denial of its plan to build the mosque for up to 150 worshipers.
Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.