From The Deseret News
A federal judge has ruled against a New Jersey township, keeping it from imposing a zoning change that blocked a mosque from expanding into a residential neighborhood.
The decision, according to the Wall Street Journal, represents “a hard-fought victory” for the Al Falah Center, which has sought approval for a new mosque in Bridgewater Township, N.J., for years.
Township officials are now barred from imposing an ordinance that limited “houses of worship to certain major roads,” which also stopped the mosque from being built at the center’s proposed site, Mountain Top Road, according to NJ.com.
A judge on Monday said the township of Bridgewater “failed to justify why the need for the variance outweighed the religious burden it imposed,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The center is “without a permanent spiritual home, which has impeded its growth and its capacity to raise money for its programs,” the judge wrote in his 46-page opinion. “Without a permanent mosque, plaintiff is unable to attract a permanent imam, or spiritual leader. These combined factors, among others, have rendered it nearly impossible for Al Falah and its individual members to adhere to the tenets of their religion.”
Now, according to MyCentralJersey.com, Bridgewater will have to reconsider the Al Falah Center’s original application, which included using the site of a former Redwood Inn as a mosque.
The dispute began in 2011 on the heels of a national controversy surrounding a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York City, the Wall Street Journal reported.
