City rejects permit to build mosque over ‘anti-Muslim animus,' TN lawsuit says
The lawsuit — filed July 25 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Bartlett Muslim Society — asks the court to declare the city's actions a violation of federal and state law and to make the city approve their building plans.
'Our congregation needs more space to worship, teach our children, and host community meals and gatherings,' Badrul Hossain, board president of the Bartlett Muslim Society, said in a July 25 news release. 'We have tried very hard to work with the city and have responded to any and all concerns raised, yet we were still denied a permit.'
A spokesperson for the City of Bartlett told McClatchy News in a July 30 email they had not been officially served with the complaint and are unable to comment.
According to the complaint, city officials have approved plans for Christian churches in similar or 'less favorable' situations, including one church in which 70 people signed a petition in opposition of the build.
'This is a clear case of interference with religious freedom,' Stella Yarbrough, ACLU-TN legal director said in the release. 'The facts don't support the permit denial, but they do reveal something deeper — an attempt to restrict a community's religious practices based on who they are.'
Bartlett is about a 10-mile drive northeast from downtown Memphis.
The Bartlett Muslim Society — made up of about 20 families — had plans to build a new worship space after outgrowing a commercial retail space it had been renting, according to the complaint.
The rental space lacked room to accommodate religious needs, like keeping men and women separate during prayer, performing ablution and observing the Ramadan feast together, according to the complaint.
But after purchasing land for a new mosque and submitting a special use permit application in 2023, the congregation was subjected to 'extensive, expensive, and purposeless delay as part of a sham permitting process,' attorneys said.
This marked the start of what led to the suit accusing the city of violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) of 2000, which protects religious institutions from discrimination in zoning and landmarking laws, according to the Department of Justice.
Unlike other applicants for the permit, the Bartlett Muslim Society had to complete a mandatory traffic study, which they paid more than $20,000 for, according to the complaint.
Two city planning commission members said in private text messages they thought the traffic study was 'a total waste of time and money,' according to a public records request cited in the complaint.
Despite the study's conclusion that the mosque wouldn't have a negative impact on traffic patterns, the commission voted unanimously in December to deny the request, and in February it was formally denied by the city, attorneys said.
According to attorneys, the city also denied any attempts to compromise or find an alternate solution, imposing a burden on the group's religious exercise and discriminating against them based on religion.
'The real reason the (Bartlett Muslim Society's) permit was denied was anti-Muslim animus,' attorneys said.
In previous years, Muslims have been perceived as facing a 'high degree of discrimination,' according to Pew Research Center.
While that changed this year — with the share of Americans who said Muslims face discrimination at the lowest level in eight years — Muslims still remain among the top groups to be perceived as facing at least some discrimination, McClatchy News reported.
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