LAWSUIT TARGETING A MOSQUE FAILS IN US

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced that a “frivolous” lawsuit that sought to block the construction of a Florida mosque has been dismissed. CAIR said the voluntarily-dismissed lawsuit was a failed attempt to harass and intimidate the Islamic Centre of South Florida and the entire Florida Muslim community. The Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said that any lawsuit seeking to misuse the courts to suppress constitutional rights is destined to fail. The lawsuit, filed last year, claimed the new mosque would constitute a public nuisance and falsely linked mosque officials and CAIR to terrorism. CAIR and the mosque offered a strong legal challenge to the suit. This frivolous lawsuit was clearly designed to prevent Florida Muslims from exercising their First Amendment right to worship freely. “The plaintiff’s defeat in this case demonstrates that defamation and Islamophobic smears will not succeed in American courts,” said CAIR National Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili. “The rule of law, not hatred and intolerance, prevailed.”