Posted on 10/02/2015 11:35:12 AM PDT by 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.
Let them build it. Then bulldoze it.
Des Plaines? Two lousy miles from O’Hare Airport?
No. Registered Offender Pedophiles can’t be near schools, and Islamic Mosques cannot be near major airports.
Did Angela Merkel just read Germany’s SUICIDE NOTE?
11 minutes of very frightening — and SPOT ON — analysis of the ongoing muslim “invasion” of Europe. Brace for impact ‘cause it’s coming here very soon. And obozo will make comments JUST LIKE THESE to justify it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_8kc19DL70
when was the last time the obama DoJ sued anyone for obstructing a Jewish temple or Christian church?
Answer: never.
Why?
Answer: Obama is one of the world’s most powerful leaders in promoting Islam.
Merkel’s as much an idiot as Bambam regarding muzzies, invasions by illegals and open borders, both of them should be run out of office NOW.
Since when does the DOJ have standing to sue a city over it’s “zoning” laws ..??
I thought you would have to own property within that zone, in order to sue over the laws ..??
Yep, it’s more of the same illegal crud from 0bama and his administration, they enforce law as they interpret them.
Now Loretta Lynch and her DOJ are inserting themselves in local zoning issues if involving Muslims. Yet I don’t see them concerned about, for example, voter fraud.
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.
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Reason # 65,422 why Obama is a muzzie.
Eff the DOJ. DON”T DO IT! What are they gonna do? Call in troops?
**** “What’re they gonna do? Send troops?” *****
Hope the Troops are wearing those Blue Helmets! They are about the most popular Target for sighting in weapons known to man.
Vanita vs. Carley
Cage Match
Well, NYC kept them from building a Mosque on the former site of WTC. I was actually surprised they kept the Mosque from that part of town; and they also kept the extreme lefty’s from making the WTC museum a hate fest against America.
Never give up.
I’ve heard that few are not.
Pretty open and shut to me. Islam does not qualify under the RLUIPA because it is not a religion. It is a cult.
I’d like to see them send federal agents and get their arses handed back to ‘em, but I’m guessing they can just threaten the town with a cut of some kind of funding and they’ll fold like yesterday’s newspaper.
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