Islamic Society wins 'landmark ruling' in long battle for new mosque

The township held a mosque to a tougher standard than it required of churches or synagogues, a federal judge found.

BERNARDS TWP. -- Bernards Township's insistence that a proposed mosque have more parking spaces than churches or synagogues is unconstitutional, a federal judge said in a ruling filed New Year's Eve.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shipp's ruling eviscerates the township's main reason for rejecting Islamic Society of Basking Ridge's plan to build a mosque in the Liberty Corner section of town.

The court victory is a turning point in the nearly four-year saga of the Islamic Society's desire to move its worship from rented space to a mosque. 

That plan, which triggered neighborhood opposition, went through 39 planning board meetings before being rejected in December of 2015. The mosque then sued, claiming the township's requirement of a "supersized" parking lot was a perfect example of religious discrimination.

Noting that "mosques are under assault throughout the country," the mosque's attorney, Adeel Mangi, told Judge Shipp that parking requirements were the tool municipalities used to thwart construction of mosques.

"This truly is a landmark ruling with national impact," he said Sunday.

It its legal defense, the township said it was completely appropriate to insist a mosque provide more off-street parking than a comparably-sized church or synagogue because of its unique worship times and traditions.

"It's not based on religion," the township's attorney, Howard Mankoff told the judge in oral arguments Dec. 20. "It's based simply on the parking needs of the applicant."

The mosque had said its peak worship time was likely Friday afternoon prayers. Township planners determined that because congregants would most likely be arriving straight from work, every worshipper would require a parking space.

However, Shipp noted the township had not conducted individual assessments of worship habits when churches or synagogues came before its boards. By its own admission, the town applied a different standard to Muslims, he wrote.

The township had argued that to insist it treat all applicants the same would strip local planning boards of authority.

But Judge Shipp said the township's vague parking requirements gave the planning board "unbridled and unconstitutional discretion."

Shipp did not take into account the sentiments expressed in emails from township officials that were revealed in documents filed in the case, Mangi noted. In those, officials disparaged the Islamic Society's president, former mayor Mohammed Ali Chaudry, and passed around anti-Obama jokes calling him a Muslim. 

In addition, the musings of a planning board employee in her online journal included her conclusion that the mosque's application was being subjected to a different level of scrutiny that smacked of discrimination.

"They are allowed to lie for the sake of their religion," the unnamed journal-writer said she heard a township official state.

Officials defended those emails, saying they had no bearing on the planning board's consideration of the land-use case. 

Township officials had not yet been reached for comment.