Al FALAH CENTER: STRUGGLE, DETERMINATION, SUCCESS
All praise and thanks belong to Allah (S.W.T.), with Whose blessing all good and righteous deeds happen, and all success is from Him. May prayers and peace be upon our dear Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)anduponhis family and his companions. You plan and I plan but Allah is the Best Planner.
Al Falah Center was established in November 2010 by a group of community members to serve the needs of the growing Muslim community in Bridgewater and to play a positive role in the wider faith community. In 2011, Al Falah made an application to the Township to build a mosque and community center at the site of a former Redwood Inn located in a residential area. The application conformed to all existing laws and zoning codes in Bridgewater, where houses of worship were permitted in residential areas. Al Falah completed all the necessary traffic studies and our engineers met with the Township’s Engineer, Traffic Consultant, and Fire Official to review the application.
At the first scheduled public hearing before the Town’s Planning Board to consider a simple application that did not even need a variance, hundreds of protestors stormed the meeting in response to an Islamophobic campaign within and outside of Bridgewater. The crowd forced an adjournment of the hearing because attendance exceeded the room capacity. Pressured by the Islamophobic vocal opposition, the Township rushed to propose a change in the zoning ordinance, which would significantly limit the permitted sites for a house of worship.. Furthermore, this change was being fast-tracked ahead of a statute, effective May 5, 2011, that would expressly prohibit such zoning changes on already-submitted applications. Whereas these types of changes usually take years, the township fast tracked them within a few weeks to impede the Al Falah Center application. At several ensuing town council meetings, members of the Muslim community faced public harassment by opposers, but also found broad support from the wider community, including Jewish and Christian leaders and civil rights activists.
Less than a month after it was proposed, the new zoning ordinance was adopted by the Township Council and the Mayor, preventing Al Falah from building its Islamic Center. The zoning change singled out the Muslim community unjustly, as the only major religious group in Bridgewater without its own house of worship. The move also violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which protects against religious discrimination and government infringement of religious liberty in local land-use laws, such as zoning and landmarking ordinances, recognizing that places of worship, particularly those of religious and ethnic minorities, were often discriminated against in zoning matters. Religious liberty is a founding tenet of our nation and a basic right to which all are entitled, and this constitutional right was violated when Bridgewater Township changed zoning laws to prevent Al Falah from building a house of worship. The case of Al Falah became a subject of national and international debate as a classic case of religious discrimination against the entire community.
On April 26, 2011, Al Falah Center and individual Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on behalf of the community against the Township of Bridgewater for its enactment of the zoning ordinance, alleging violations of RLUIPA, as well as the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and correspondent protections of New Jersey’s Constitution. Plaintiffs also filed for a temporary injunction against the new ordinance and its application so Al Falah Center would not suffer irreparable harm.
In June 2011, the Court denied Bridgewater’s Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit, finding that there was merit to the claims brought by Al Falah and individual Plaintiffs, and upheld the temporary injunction. Further, on September 30, 2013, the Federal Court issued a decisive ruling for Al Falah, permanently enjoining the town from applying the new discriminatory law to the mosque application. The Court denied the Township’s Summary Judgment finding that Al Falah had suffered irreparable injury and the Muslim community had been deprived of a house of worship for years. The Court granted Al Falah Center a permanent injunction thereby preventing the township from changing the Ordinance. It directed the Township to evaluate Al Falah Center’s application under the previous Ordinance to build a Masjid at the Redwood Inn. The Township appealed the order and requested a stay of the permanent injunction; however, the Court of Appeals denied the Township application and again sided with Al Falah Center. Following this ruling, the parties engaged in extensive settlement negotiations to allow Al Falah Center to build its house of worship in Bridgewater.
On November 17, 2014, Al Falah reached a settlement with Bridgewater Township. The settlement was a very significant step in Al Falah’s goal to build the first Masjid in Bridgewater Township and Somerset County. Under the terms of the settlement, the Township agreed to exchange a 10.75-acre piece of land for the Redwood Inn. In addition, Al Falah Center and individual Plaintiffs who led this initiative received a substantial monetary settlement in the amount of $5 million; the Plaintiffs waived their rights to receive any funds from the lawsuit by donating the whole amount to build the Islamic Center on a new property.
The settlement was the highest recovery ever in a lawsuit involving the establishment of a religious center under RLUIPA. This landmark case serves as a precedent for other Masajid in New Jersey and around the country. This victory solidified our belief that the First Amendment truly protects our right to worship without government intervention.
The blessing of Allah and His justice allowed the Al Falah community to dream big – to not just renovate an inn as we originally planned, but to build a beautiful and prominent Islamic Center. Indeed, Allah is the Best of All Planners. Now all we have to do is to complete the dream and reap the benefit of what Allah planned for us both in this life and in the Hereafter. The Al Falah case is an example of courage in the face of religious discrimination. It is a story for generations to tell, cherish and learn from.