Department of Justice: No Violations in Kennesaw Mosque Case

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The City of Kennesaw is no longer being investigated by the Department of Justice for allegations that it violated federal religious law when deciding whether to allow a mosque to operate within city limits.

According to the Marietta Daily Journal, the city’s passage of an updated zoning code which gave greater latitude to religious groups showed the city was not violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, a claim made by a lawyer representing the Suffa Dawat Center.

An attorney representing Muslims involved in the project told the AJC in December that the city’s rejection of the mosque whilst accepting a Christian church inside the same shopping center last year could constitute a violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Similar violations were alleged during mosque expansion controversies in Alpharetta and Lilburn; in those instances, the cities allowed the mosques to expand, the AJC reports.

The Kennesaw City Council originally voted down the mosque proposal, but reversed their decision two weeks later. According to WSB-TV, Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews said that city council members had their minds changed by legal arguments from the city’s attorney. Matthews added that the reversal was not spurred by any outside pressure or the complaint filed with the Department of Justice.

A representative of the Suffa Dawat Center, which will operate in a shopping center on Jiles Road, said near the end of last year that it would take several months to ready the mosque for worship, and added that only around 60 Muslims would attend Friday services. A much smaller number of Muslims would report to the mosque for daily prayers, the representative added.