The small Minnesota town of St. Anthony Village is being sued by the U.S. government for refusing to allow a Muslim group the right to open a worship center. The Muslim group claims that they were denied permission to open a place of worship because of their religious affiliation.
Photo/Nodar Kherkheulidze via wikimedia commons
The Justice Department filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis against St. Anthony Village, where council members voted 4-1 in 2012 to deny a request by the Abu Huraira Islamic Center to create a place of worship in the basement of the St. Anthony Business Center.
“Religious freedom is one of our most cherished rights, and there are few aspects of that right more central than the ability of communities to establish places for collective worship,” Molly Moran, acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
The complaint argues the municipality treated the group’s application for a conditional use permit on less than equal terms than other, non-religious, conditional use permits for assembly.
The municipality maintains that a lack of space was the reason for the denial, reported Charisma News.
The denial of the permit unlawfully prohibited religious use because the zoning code for where the building is located allowed “assemblies, meeting lodges and convention halls,” the Justice Department said.
Kaye Wonderhouse - Catherine "Kaye" Wonderhouse, a proud descendant of the Wunderhaus family is the Colorado Correspondent who will add more coverage, interviews and reports from this midwest area.