“Traffic safety and congestion in the heart of a single-family residential subdivision were our foremost concerns, which have been addressed in the settlement,” the statement continued, and added that the township’s insurer, not the taxpayers, would be paying the settlement. In an emailed statement to BuzzFeed News on Thursday, Mandy Grewal, the Township’s supervisor, said that the Township and the Board of Trustees “deny any wrongdoing, discrimination or violation of law.” RULIPA was passed by Congress in 2000 and is designed to “protect individuals, houses of worship, and other religious institutions from discrimination in zoning and landmarking laws,” according to the Justice Department. We filed this lawsuit to protect the right of all Americans to practice their religion and receive the religious instruction and education of their choice.” McQuade said, “This complaint alleges that Pittsfield Township denied the Michigan Islamic Academy's request to build a school in violation of that law. In a statement from October, 2015, US Attorney Barbara L. In October, 2015, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department also filed a lawsuit against Pittsfield Township, a town of around 30,000 located directly south of Ann Arbor. “This case represents a huge victory for the American Muslim community, and it helps give a message to the American Muslim community that if you stand up for your rights, they will be granted.” “The American Muslim community, unfortunately, over the last few years, has been facing systematic and large scale discrimination whenever they try to build a mosque, school, cemetery or even a playground,” Masri said. Lena Masri, an attorney for CAIR Michigan, who helped filed the 2012 lawsuit, told BuzzFeed News that the $1.7 million settlement was one of the largest since RLUIPA was enacted.
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