(Free Lance-Star) The All Muslim Association of America filed a federal lawsuit Monday claiming Stafford County violated its religious rights by blocking its plans for a cemetery off Garrisonville Road.
The lawsuit calls the county’s decision to revise its cemetery ordinance in 2016 “discriminatory, arbitrary,” and alleges the county and its supervisors adopted a stricter ordinance than required by the state “to preclude a Muslim association from building a cemetery on land zoned for that purpose.”
It names Stafford County and the Stafford Board of Supervisors as defendants.
Tawfiq Rangwala of Milbank’s Litigation and Arbitration Group, the law firm that represents AMAA, said in a statement, “The county’s decision to ignore the Virginia Health Department’s guidance and amend its ordinances in a way that precludes the exercise of religious rights and freedoms should not be tolerated.”
