Township Saw a Zoning Issue. The Justice Dept. Saw Religious Discrimination.

[rug]

Haaris Siddiq, 23, center, a Bensalem Masjid congregation member in a Derek Jeter shirt, during prayers at a converted church in Yardley, Pa. Credit Mark Makela for The New York Times

By KATIE SHEPHERDAUG. 7, 2016

WASHINGTON — For nearly 10 months, a Muslim congregation in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, Pa., pleaded with township officials to allow the construction of a mosque, paying for expensive traffic studies, repeatedly explaining Islamic practices, revising and re-revising design plans, and then receiving the final word: No.

Then last month, the Justice Department stepped in, charging that the Bensalem Township zoning hearing board had violated federal religious land-use laws by denying the congregation’s application after it had granted zoning exemptions for other religious construction projects.

“We were just asking for our mosque, and we just wanted to be treated like everyone else,” said Imtiaz Chaudhry, a physician and member of the Bensalem Masjid congregation.

As anti-Islamic rhetoric and discrimination surges this presidential election year, the Justice Department is emerging as a bulwark for embattled American Muslims. Vanita Gupta, who heads the department’s civil rights division, said terrorism abroad and at home had led to “an uptick in hate-related incidents against the Muslim community,” a surge not seen since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/us/politics/township-saw-a-zoning-issue-the-justice-dept-saw-religious-discrimination.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Good.

[anoNY42]

2. I would be outside protesting

with a sign saying "Yankees Fans Go Home!"

[Angry Dragon]

3. kick