WASHINGTON 鈥� The U.S. Justice Department on Monday against Culpeper County, Virginia, over an April board vote that effectively blocked construction of a mosque, the department said in a news release.
The federal complaint alleges that the county鈥檚 Board of Supervisors imposed a substantial burden on the Islamic Center of Culpeper (ICC)鈥檚 exercise of religion, and that the board was discriminating when it refused to grant a 鈥減ump-and-haul鈥� permit for transporting sewage from a septic system.
County officials had told the ICC that such a permit was necessary because its soil, like much soil in the area, could not support a septic system.
The board later voted down the ICC鈥檚 permit request in a 4鈥�3 vote, effectively preventing the ICC from building a small mosque on land that it had purchased. The land is located in a zoning district where religious land use is permitted.
The federal complaint alleges, however, that since 1992, the county has considered 26 applications and has never denied such a permit for commercial or religious use.
The board鈥檚 vote, prosecutors say, violated the .
Back in April, Supervisor Sue Hansohn that she had received complaints from residents expressing fears about the Islamic center.
鈥淭he majority of the calls and emails I had was because of the religion, not because it鈥檚 a pump-and-haul or environmental reasons,鈥� said Hansohn, who supported the permit.
