(Commercial Appeal) The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the City of Horn Lake in federal court, alleging that the city and its board of aldermen discriminated against two Muslim men on the basis of religion in denying approval of a mosque site plan.
The complaint, which also targets Mayor Allen Latimer, alleges that the city violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the First Amendment by denying zoning approval for a proposed mosque.
“A mosque is to Muslims what a church is to Christians or a synagogue is to Jewish people,” said Joshua Tom, legal director at the ACLU of Mississippi. “The city of Horn Lake has 13 churches. DeSoto County has 132 churches. There are no mosques in Horn Lake or DeSoto County. Without a mosque, Muslims like Mr. Elkhayyat and Mr. Abuirshaid and their families cannot practice their religion as they would like and they cannot practice it fully.”
