The complaint says that the Bensalem Township violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalised Persons Act of 2000 when it denied zoning approval for a new mosque planned by local congregation Bensalem Masjid. In 2014, the township board voted unanimously against an application from Bensalem Masjid for a variance to construct the new mosque on three parcels of land not zoned for religious use.

Zoning out worship

In the absence of a new mosque, the congregation was been worshipping in a rented local firehouse leased by a different Muslim congregation. While township attorney Joseph Pizzo maintains that Bensalem Masjid has ‘worshipped in the community for more than a decade without any resistance from the community or interference from local government’, the DoJ alleges that Bensalem Township is using land use regulations to create unreasonable barriers to religious assembly in the town. ‘Bensalem’s zoning scheme gives the township unbridled discretion over which religious groups can worship in the township,’ argued an attorney for the congregation in an official statement.

Discrimination denied

Mr Pizzo, however, has refuted the discrimination allegations levelled against the township. The board’s decision to reject the group’s variance application, he said, came down to its inability to present a solid case for their right to receive such a variance. Potential impacts on traffic and congestion in the area surrounding the proposed mosque site were also a key concern, he said. 

Source: Department of Justice; Wall Street Journal