Muslims see anti-mosque bias in landmarking decision

After months of searching to find a home for their mosque, a Muslim group settled on a century-old, three-story Tudor in a leafy neighborhood of a New York suburb, a fixer-upper they say would be perfect with the right renovations.
But not long after the sale went through last year, neighbors thought it was perfect just the way it was. A neighborhood group filed an application to have the building designated a city landmark and won final approval last month, meaning any exterior renovations will now have to go through a time-consuming permission process.
While city officials insisted the landmark status wouldn’t prevent the home being used as a mosque, the Muslim organization saw something more sinister.
“We feel that we are being targeted,” said Arshad Shariff, chairman of the Islamic Community Center of Mid-Westchester. “And unnecessary obstacles and hindrances are being placed because we are Muslim.”
It’s a refrain that’s been heard around the country, from Muslims who say they have faced all kinds of zoning and other obstacles as they’ve tried to build or expand mosques. Some of the conflicts have gone to court, under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal law passed in 2000 that forbids using zoning laws in such a way.
Among the most high-profile of the controversies was over plans for an Islamic center to be built in the vicinity of New York City’s World Trade Center site, which was dubbed the “Ground Zero mosque” in 2010 by opponents.
More recently, a Muslim group in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, has been facing zoning and other obstacles for several years over its plan to build a mosque, resulting in a federal lawsuit against the town’s planning board.

Source: Arab News