Editorial: First Amendment protects all faiths

The right to worship, or not to worship at all, is one of the basic principles that has guided this nation since its founding. That right, though, increasingly, has come under siege lately as communities in New Jersey and across the country have tried to stymie Muslims in their efforts to practice their faith as they see fit.

As Staff Writer Hannan Adely reported, Muslims from New York to Minnesota are fighting what they believe to be an ongoing “anti-Muslim” campaign by filing lawsuits whenever they feel threatened. One such case recently involved Bernards Township in Somerset County. The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Bernards Township will pay $3.25 million to a settle a lawsuit over its denial of a permit to build a mosque.

Part of that settlement requires the township to train, within 180 days, all current and future members of its Planning Board and Township Committee in diversity and inclusion, particularly focusing on Islam and Muslims. It should never have had to come to this, not in diversity-rich New Jersey, and not anywhere in this country where people merely seek a place to pray or worship without feeling threatened.

Now, a new and similar case has surfaced in Bayonne, where a Muslim group filed a federal-discrimination lawsuit in late May after the city rejected its plan to convert an old warehouse on a dead-end street into a mosque. Indeed, as anti-Muslim sentiment has increased – including reports of anti-mosque fliers being placed in children’s mailboxes at school – Muslim groups have remained undeterred, and more determined than ever to press the issue.

“Municipalities around the country should pay close attention to what happened in Bernards Township,” said Adeel Abdullah Mangi, an attorney representing Muslim groups in the Bernards and Bayonne lawsuits. “The American Muslim community has the legal resources, the allies and the determination to stand up for its constitutional rights in court and will do so.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, in a report last year, said there had been a “sharp increase” in the number of its investigations into religious discrimination involving mosques or Islamic schools over the past six years. The same report noted “particularly severe discrimination faced by Muslims in land use.”

The founders of this nation were not perfect men, but they knew enough to realize the importance of religious liberty, the practical right of individuals to practice their faith without interference from the state. That right is enshrined in the Constitution, and it is going to stay there. Local municipalities around the country opposed to the building of mosques had better get used to the idea.