REUTERS.COM: A judge ruled on Tuesday that a local Tennessee government failed to follow proper procedures in granting a permit for the construction of a mosque, casting doubt on the future of the Islamic place of worship which is nearly complete.
Judge Robert Corlew ruled that the Rutherford County planning commission had not given enough public notice prior to a 2010 meeting when the mosque plans were approved, effectively nullifying the building permit.
A civil rights group on Tuesday called on the U.S. Justice Department to step in if the planning commission does not act "immediately" to reissue permits for construction of the 52,000-plus-square-foot (4,830-plus-square-meter) mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, about 34 miles south of Nashville.
"If you read the judge's ruling, it is clear he sought a heightened standard of public notice for an issue that involves Muslims," Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for The Council on American-Islamic Relations. » | Tim Ghianni | NASHVILLE, Tennessee | Tuesday, May 29, 2012
REUTERS – BLOGS: Thousands of Muslims pray for Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia to be a mosque again: Thousands of devout Muslimshave prayed outside Turkey’s historic Hagia Sophia museum to protest a 1934 law that bars religious services at the former church and mosque. » | Ayla Jean Yackley | Tuesday, May 29, 2012
REUTERS – BLOGS: Netanyahu says ceding control of Jerusalem’s sacred sites would be fatal mistake: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday it would be a “fatal mistake” ever to give up control over Jerusalem’s holy sites. His remarks, in a parliamentary speech, went a little further than Israel’s longtime policy of viewing Jerusalem, a city at the heart of Middle East conflict, as its “indivisible capital”. » | Allyn Fisher-Ilan | Monday, May 21, 2012
