Forgive our skepticism when local officials turn around and play the victims.
In our current political climate, dominated by Donald Trump, it's heartening to see so many different religious and legal groups speaking out in support of a small community of Muslims suing Bernards Township over its denial of a proposal to build a mosque.
But it's troubling, too. Because even as they rally to this cause, local officials are doubling down on their position, leaving themselves -- and the taxpayers -- exposed.
The mayor, Carol Bianchi, says the 34 organizations that joined the federal civil rights lawsuit against her town -- including the American Civil Liberties Union and major Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups -- simply don't understand the facts of the case.
Diverse coalition joins Islamic group's mosque lawsuit against township
She continues to defend the decision to apply a stricter parking standard to the mosque than to churches or synagogues.
"The standard previously applied was one parking spot for every three anticipated worshippers," she concedes -- but Muslims require more parking, she says, because they worship on Friday afternoons and are driving straight from work.
This argument might be more compelling if it didn't seem so disingenuous. Of several available traffic studies, the planning board chose the one that called for the strictest requirement. It did a religion-specific study only for Muslims, not for Jews or Christians. It ignored a local ordinance that required it to apply the same standard to mosques as to churches. And it kept moving the goal posts. Each time the Muslim group agreed to comply, it threw new obstacles in the way.
The whole point of the federal law the group is now suing under was to prevent local boards from discriminating on the basis of religion. What kind of protection would it offer if you could discriminate, so long as you come up with some strained reason for it?
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After Bridgewater amended its ordinance to block a mosque from being built, it settled a lawsuit for $7.75 million, for what a federal judge called anti-Muslim bias. That should send a clear warning to Bayonne, too -- where local bigots are also out in full force, threatening to recall the mayor if a proposed mosque is built.
In Bernards, Mayor Bianchi was chair of the planning board when it came up with the new parking standard for the mosque, and argued it should be even stricter. She doesn't deny the anti-Muslim comments in the complaint, by locals and at least one board member, but claims the decision wasn't based on animus.
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She calls her town "inclusive and warm," and says it's being unfairly maligned: "Are the reputations, livelihoods, and families of our Planning Board members irrelevant?"
Forgive our skepticism when local officials turn around and play the victims. They dragged this out for nearly four years, costing the Muslim applicants more than $450,000 -- not only for their own fees, but for the town's, too -- before finally rejecting them.
The taxpayers are the victims now, because they're spending big to fight this out in court.
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