Muslim group wants $2M from Troy after battle over mosque — and city is fighting back

Told by a judge that the city’s zoning code violated federal law by keeping a mosque from opening, Troy agreed to let Muslims occupy the building that they bought nearly five years ago.

But Troy officials have steadfastly refused to pay the group’s monetary claim of $1.9 million. That claim, for damages, court costs and attorney fees, has accrued since 2014, when the group first sued the city after being rebuffed on another building.

Since March, the two sides have negotiated with little progress. The Muslim group's lawyer said she can justify the dollar claim, citing not only its own history of expenses but also the similar million-dollar settlements reached after Muslims were allowed mosques in other Michigan locales, including Sterling Heights ($1.5 million) in Macomb County and Pittsfield Township ($1.75 million) in Washtenaw County.

Troy Mayor Ethan Baker said he planned to attend the mosque’s ribbon cutting Saturday. But Baker said this week that the city shouldn’t budge on a payout because the monetary claim is excessive.

“I can’t speak for the city,” he said.

Still, in his view — and Baker is a lawyer — he said he thought the city should balk at settling “as long as the demand remains anything more than a million dollars.” In fact, Troy recently filed a request with the court asking to pay nothing. Baker, known for attending virtually every ribbon cutting in Oakland County’s largest city, said he expected to speak at the event but was leery of what others might say.

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“I, of course, will welcome them to the community, as I would any other house of worship,” he said. He said he’d heard that the group’s lawyers would speak.

“I hope they don’t. I’m hopeful they don’t try to embarrass me. I don’t want to go there and have people say things that put the city in a bad light,” he said.

Yet, a federal judge in Detroit has already done that, in rulings that read like slam dunks.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds relied on a powerful law that, since President Bill Clinton signed it 22 years ago, has given increasing clout to religious organizations in all kinds of disputes. The law was famously devised by strange bedfellows — two U.S. senators who rarely agreed on anything: Orrin Hatch, the well-known Republican from Utah; and Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and the celebrated youngest brother of former President John F. Kennedy. Though both men are now dead, they left behind a federal law that constitutional lawyers pronounce “rah-LOO-pah,” for the acronym RLUIPA — short for the Religious Land Use and Incarcerated Persons Act.

History records that Hatch wanted a Mormon group to be allowed to expand their temple over the objections of a historic commission that vetoed the Mormons' expansion plans for an aged structure. And Kennedy, citing experts who said religious faith often led to rehabilitation, wanted more rights for federal prisoners trying to worship behind bars, including Jews who’d been served pork on holy days and a Black Rastafarian who wasn’t allowed to grow dreadlocks in prison. RLUIPA’s effect in prisons rarely attracts attention, but the impact is hard to miss when it involves churches, synagogues and especially mosques, said Howard Friedman of West Bloomfield, a retired law professor and expert on RLUIPA.

“There’s been particularly a history of discrimination against mosques after 9/11,” and that triggered numerous lawsuits hinging on RLUIPA, said Friedman, who operates the blog “religionclause.blogspot.com.” Friedman’s blogging has been busy lately, as the current U.S. Supreme Court increasingly grants more powers and prerogatives to religious groups.

In the case against Troy, Edmunds did not merely agree with the Muslim group. Her ruling vigorously affirmed arguments advanced by the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed a companion lawsuit against Troy after viewing the years of legal struggles fought by the Muslim group, called Adam Community Center. The group adopted that name because it sought more than a mosque. The Adam group wanted a building that would house not only a mosque but religious education classes, a library, gym and youth recreation area, conference center, and banquet hall, according to the Department of Justice lawsuit.

Edmunds gave no wiggle room for Troy when it came to allowing the mosque. At the conclusion of her 31-page ruling, she declared that the city’s zoning rule was clearly illegal under RLUIPA. Back on page 11, her opinion recounts how Troy’s official decision process went badly wrong. Edmunds reviews the ominous chatter at a Troy Zoning Board of Appeals hearing in June 2018, when representatives of Adam Community Center sought permission to use a building they’d agreed to buy for $2 million — the defunct Sakura Japanese Steakhouse restaurant and banquet hall. Edmunds’ ruling says that one member of the city board “asked for clarification regarding the impacts of RLUIPA, but Troy’s Assistant City Attorney replied that the ZBA did not need to be concerned with RLUIPA.”

According to a large sign in the lobby, the mosque will offer parties on religious holidays, community dinners, “Saturday school for Teens and Pre-Teens,” five daily prayer periods and classes in the Quran — Islam’s scriptures. The efforts of Adam Community Center actually began with another restaurant site, the former Marinelli’s at 4924 Rochester Road — now Neehee’s Indian Vegetarian restaurant. Initially, the Adam group’s application gained preliminary approval from the city, said Amy Doukoure, with the Michigan chapter of CAIR — the Council of American-Islamic Relations.

“But someone emailed the city and said it would become a mosque,” killing prospects for getting approval, said Doukoure, a lawyer who represents those seeking a combined mosque and community center in Troy. Soon after an exchange of emails, the Troy Downtown Development Authority recommended against granting approval, Doukoure said. Emails documenting the city’s start-stop decision process were attached to the lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice.

“Our application (for the Marinelli’s site) didn’t hide anything,” because it mentioned that the community center would have “a prayer space,” Doukoure said. Still, the city refused its permission. So Adam Community Center’s board members tried other locations.

“They’d bring ideas for other buildings to the city and, every time, the city said this wasn’t going to work,” she said. In a 2018 meeting of the Troy Zoning Board of Appeal, “more than one member said, ‘There’s nowhere in Troy for this (and) they should go to Rochester Hills.’ That’s on the videos” of the meetings, she said.

“They tried to buy a church. They submitted the highest bid, with a really good down payment and they were told ‘We will never sell to you, no matter how much you bid.’ It was very discouraging,” she said. The sequence of these events is recounted in the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Troy and in Edmunds’ ruling.

After discovering the property of the former Japanese steakhouse and banquet center, board members “thought this would be easy because it was already a large building with plenty of parking,” said Doukoure. Yet, Troy’s zoning code “again made it impossible for a place of worship to occupy this commercial building,” she said.

Things looked dour. Donors withdrew nearly $500,000 in pledges. What changed everything? RLUIPA.

“That law was enacted by Congress simply to say that you cannot zone religion, or a specific religion, out of your city,” Dakoure said. Furthermore, under the law’s provisions, Troy must pay the Muslim group’s claims for damages, attorney fees, and costs, she asserted. Just how much is the question.

“Troy is basically asking the court to dismiss our case and not pay anything. Troy has strongly indicated that once there’s a final order from the court, they will appeal,” Dakoure said. That would add to the years of legal costs for each side, she said.

Troy City Attorney Lori Grigg Bluhm was in Europe this week, but she responded to a Free Press email with a short note: “There is not much to report. The cases are still pending. A certificate of occupancy has been granted.”

Grigg Bluhm referred to multiple cases because pending are both the initial lawsuit filed by Adam Community Center and the subsequent case brought by the Justice Department.

The name of the new mosque is First Jamiah Masjid of Troy. “Masjid” is an Arabic term meaning “place of prostration,” according to online definitions, and confirmed by a man who identified himself as an imam at the new mosque; he declined to give his name. During daily prayers, Muslims kneel and touch their foreheads to the ground as a sign of submission to the will of God. Until recently, members of the Adam group have been praying in the basement of an office building owned by one of the board members, according to legal documents. Lately, however, they’ve been able to bow and pray five times a day at the new site, still marked by a sign on Rochester Road as the long-gone Japanese steakhouse, members said when the Free Press visited.

On Thursday at the 2 p.m. prayer time, 12 men gathered at one end of the big prayer room, with an imam, their name for a priest, standing in front. Multiple times in response to the imam's commands, they bowed, knelt, placed foreheads on the carpeting, stood, and then knelt again. Each had removed his shoes in the lobby. After the prayers, the imam spoke in English for several minutes of the obligations to Islam, including their need to "perform good deeds," to "act righteously at all times" and to "deal with people in the best of ways."

Afterward, Mahmood Sayed, a Troy resident since 2004 and owner of a three-store chain of clothing and shoe stores in metro Detroit, told a reporter: "We are all grateful to get permission for the mosque in Troy. It was a long struggle." Sayed is secretary of the Muslim group and one of four partners who bought the building, which will also have space for community dinners and a library, he said.

After more fundraising, he hopes they can add recreation space for children. A monetary settlement from the city would help that effort, he said with a smile. But Troy's officials could decide not to pay a settlement and instead to appeal the case. If they do so, the city could be forced to yield again before federal law.

In an Aug. 26 response to Troy’s latest legal motion, which seeks to have the Adam group’s monetary claim dismissed, the group’s lawyer includes the following paragraph — words not likely to be welcomed by the judge:

“At the time of filing this reply, the City of Troy Zoning Ordinance still contains the provisions that violated RLUIPA. The Defendants have not voluntarily made any changes or amendments to the zoning ordinance, or in any way indicated within the text or on their website or in any other written form that they in any way have ceased enforcement of that provision.”

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Muslim group wants $2M from Troy after winning long fight over mosque