DOJ Sues Town for Nixing Rezoning Plan to Build Islamic Temple

Judicial Watch ^ | October 2, 2015

[jazusamo]

In its latest effort to protect Muslim rights in the United States the Obama Justice Department is suing an Illinois town for denying a rezoning application to convert an office building into an Islamic temple.

Failing to approve plans for the Islamic worship center violates a 2000 law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit filed this week in federal court. The accused are lawmakers in Des Plaines, a Chicago suburb with a population of about 60,000. In 2013 the Des Plaines City Council voted 5-3 to reject a rezoning request made by the American Islamic Center (AIC) to make a vacant office building in a manufacturing zone to an institutional zone that would allow a worship center.

The plan called for 3,661 square feet of worship space that would be used for prayer services on Fridays and Sundays as well as nightly prayers during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan when Muslims fast and commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad. The new temple would also be used for youth group events and other gatherings, according the rezoning application. In nixing the plan, Des Plaines aldermen expressed concern about the loss of tax revenue since religious institutions are nonprofits that don’t pay taxes. They also cited traffic and safety issues for voting against the project.

In its lawsuit the DOJ dismisses those issues and claims that the city’s “treatment and denial of AICs rezoning requests constitutes the imposition or implementation of a land use regulation that imposes a substantial burden on AICs religious exercise.” Denying a city zoning change to accommodate a Muslim temple also discriminates against the Islamic group on the basis of religion, according to the feds. Attorney General Loretta Lynch wants the court to issue an order forcing Des Plaines to let AIC construct its worship center in the city.

“The ability to establish a place for collective worship is a fundamental protection of the First Amendment and our civil rights laws,” said Vanita Gupta, head of the DOJ’s bloated civil rights division, in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “The Justice Department will remain vigilant in its mission to ensure that all religious groups enjoy the right to practice their faiths freely.” The federal prosecutor handling the case in Illinois said “the freedom to practice the religion of one’s choosing is a precious right in our country” and the DOJ will continue to “enforce the laws that protect this important right.”

The DOJ’s enthusiasm for protecting Muslim rights is in a class of its own, however. Back in 2010 Obama’s first Attorney General, Eric Holder, personally reassured Muslims of DOJ protection during an address at a San Francisco-based organization (Muslim Advocates) that urges members not to cooperate in federal terrorism investigations. It was a first for the nation’s top federal prosecutor to publicly condone illegal behavior. A few years later the DOJ warned against using social media to spread information considered inflammatory against Muslims and threatened that it could constitute a violation of civil rights.

One of the biggest and most unbelievable moves by the DOJ came in 2012 when it issued a broad order changing the way the U.S. government trains federal agents to combat terrorism and violent extremism by eliminating all materials that shed a negative light on Muslims. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) actually destroyed instructional material that characterized Muslims as prone to violence or terrorism and hundreds of pages from the 9/11 attacks were purged because they were considered offensive to Muslims under the new initiative. In 2013 Judicial Watch published an in-depth report documenting and analyzing Islamist active measures and influence operations targeting anti-terrorism training in the U.S.

[jazusamo]

Vanita Gupta, head of the civil rights division and former ACLU attorney carried the water for 0bama and Holder, now for 0bama and Loretta Lynch.

They now are trying to change existing zoning laws accusing the city of abusing civil rights.

[Westbrook]

Ignore the Fedzilla.

What’re they gonna do? Send troops?

[jazusamo]

Article by J. Christian Adams at PJ Media regarding Vanita Gupta.

DOJ Official [Gupta]: Slavery to Blame for Riots in Ferguson and Baltimore

This lunacy is mainstream thought at the Department of Justice.

Vanita Gupta, head of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, has told a lawyers group in Colorado that slavery and Jim Crow helped fuel the Ferguson and Baltimore riots.

The last few days have seen a number of fanciful stories with the Obama administration seemingly questioning the authority of local police. I’ve long maintained that the administration is nakedly seeking to federalize policing standards — but get rid of local police? No way, that sounds like something broadcast from a shortwave station in Austin, Texas.

But then up steps Vanita Gupta to lend some credibility to the idea that some want to disband local police and replace police powers with the federal government. Speaking to a group of left-wing lawyers in Colorado, Gupta had this to say :

The conversation in these rooms, however, is not about whether to have police or not but about what kind of policing communities want and deserve.

There is no question that we need police in our communities.

The conversation? What conversation is Gupta hearing that needs to be corrected? Who brought up the idea we might not need police? Nobody sane, for sure.

Vanita Gupta

Continued

[Resolute Conservative]

Yikes, she wears ugly like a color.

[Vigilanteman]

What is the difference between and Islamic Temple and an armory?

Aside from the fact that the armory doesn't claim it is a house of worship.

[tanknetter]

So long as it sticks to the taxation argument, I think the town is on solid ground here.

Was it Kelo (or Kelso?) where Groton-New London CT won an eminent domain case based on the desire to seize land and rezone as commercial to increase tax revenue?

[jazusamo]

I heard many Islamic Temples are armories.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I’m not really an advocate for female genital mutilation.

In this case, however......

[Fiji Hill]

Do Muslims refer to their houses of worship as temples?

[MarvinStinson]

Is there any question what the Obama administration’s priorities are?

[Sacajaweau]

This is why Ted Cruz should be AG.

[jazusamo]

I’ve heard them referred to as Islamic centers, never temples before.

[Nachum]

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[Jacquerie]

Warfare is so passe’.

Modern marxists prefer lawfare, the purposeful destruction of individuals and municipalities through a thoroughly overwhelming,corrupt, unjust, legal system.

They can't be ignored.

[Ann Archy]

Obama is a MUSLIM and has surrounded himself with OTHER Muslims!!

[jazusamo]

Absolutely, couldn’t agree more.

[jazusamo]

Please bump the Freepathon or click above to donate or become a monthly donor!

[Lion Den Dan]

Islam is a political system masquerading as a religion. It should be outlawed as once was the NAZI party.

[I want the USA back]

The administration is playing for the other team.

[bkopto]

This Gupta chick is incapable of understanding the United States. She is essentially a foreigner who studied US law. From wikipedia:

Gupta was born in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania to Indian immigrant parents. She spent most of her childhood in England and France.

WTH does she know about the US?

In my experience, this sort of Indian does not appreciate nor understand what the US is all about. They bring their wrong-headed socialist and redistributionist ideas over here.

She should not be a citizen of this country. Citizenship is wastefully and destructively conferred on all types of corrosive idiots who end up as the enemy within.