Bernards faces federal lawsuit over mosque denial
Islamic Society of Basking Ridge argues that stricter conditions were imposed on mosque than on other houses of worship
BERNARDS - An Islamic congregation, led by a former township mayor, has filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that the planning board's denial of a plan to build a mosque violated federal law.
In the 100-plus-page lawsuit. the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge and its president, Mohammed Ali Chaudry, who served six years on the township committee, including one year as mayor, and six years on the school board, argues that that planning board's denial of the mosque proposal in December, after conducting 39 public hearings over four years, was illegal.
"What should have been a simple board approval for a permitted use devolved into a Kafkaesque process" that played out "against a backdrop of ugly spectacle" of community "hostility" against Islam, the state suits.
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But in a statement, Mayor Carol Bianchi called Bernards "an inclusive and warm community. The allegations in the lawsuit do not represent our community."
Chaudry was believed to be the first Pakistani-American mayor in the United States.
According to the lawsuit, the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, aware of the community opposition in neighboring Bridgewater to another mosque proposal, bought a four-acre property in a zone where houses of worship were permitted.
The Bridgewater controversy ended when the township agreed to a land swap with Al Falah Center and paid the congregation $5 million for alleged damages, costs and attorney fees in exchange for dropping its lawsuit against the township. The new plans for the mosque have been approved by Bridgewater..
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The application to build a 4,252-square-foot mosque with a 1,954-square-foot prayer hall met all zoning requirements.
Yet, the lawsuit says, the opposition with Bernards "evolved into a well-funded machine" that coached objectors to express their opposition on land use terms, not because it was a mosque.
That led to opponents raising "one unreasonable and picayune land use objection after another," which, the suit charges, resulted in the planning board making "serial demands based on novel interpretations of the zoning law that had never been applied to any other applicant."
But the congregation "bent over backwards" to meet the board's demands, but ended up with having to meet more conditions, according to the lawsuit.
Those demands included the number of parking spaces, stormwater calculations, a buffer and light from headlights in the parking lot.
The suit also charges that the planning board placed stricter demands on the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge than it did on other house of worship, including the Millington Baptist Church, Congregation B'nai Israel, Chabad Jewish Center and the Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church.
In addition, while the proposal was still pending before the planning board, the township committee adopted an ordinance saying that a house of worship would be a "conditionally permitted use" and other "impossible-to-meet" conditions.
That, the suit argues, makes it impossible to ever build a mosque in the zone.
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Hearings on the plan began in August 2012 and did not end until December 2015. Shortly after plans to build the mosque were announced, the opposition began to mount, according to the lawsuit.
The first hearings took place "in an atmosphere of pronounced hostility," according to the lawsuit. Police were called to attend every hearing and the board allowed opponents to ask "aggressive and misguided" questions, including if the mosque were going to be used for animal sacrifices.
The lawsuit states that during a break in an August 2015 hearing, Chaudry was approached in the restroom by an opponent who claimed that recordings of the board meetings would be posted on "radical Islamic websites," the suit says.
The congregation is represented by the Manhattan law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.
Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com