The Justice Department claimed the county violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), which prohibits religious discrimination in land use and zoning decisions. The settlement requires the county to allow the mosque to be built without improper interference or delay.
The case arose in late 2008 when local Muslims were denied the ability to build the first mosque in the county, just north of Richmond.
The Muslims filed suit, charging that the denial of the request was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.”
The Justice Department joined the case in March 2010 and found evidence that the request to build had been denied on the basis of hostility toward Muslims. The county had never turned down a rezoning application submitted by one of its 209 Christian churches, government attorneys said.
