Horn Lake Planning Decision strictly on Religious Beliefs.

  The town of Horn Lake contains 13 churches, and its surrounding county has 132 churches in total, with no mosques. Riyadh Elkhayyat, and Maher Abuirshaid applied to build the Abraham House of God in order to provide a place of worship for Muslims in the surrounding community. Despite the mosque’s plan having “met or exceeded” all requirements for approval.” receiving approval from the city’s planning commission, and being on land zoned for a house of worship, the Horn Lake alderman denied the request. In response, on behalf of the co-founders, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the town of Horn Lake. The lawsuit alleged that the city discriminated against the mosque because of religion. The suit claimed that one alderman said the Muslim “religion says they can lie or do anything to the Jews or gentiles because we’re not Muslims.” It also reported that another town official admitted that the application was denied “because they’re Muslims.” In a ruling in January 2022, a U.S. District Judge “has ordered that in no more than 14 days, the City of Horn Lake must grant approval for the site plan for a mosque located in the city.” In his decision regarding Horn Lake’s action the judge argued "its initial impression is that it presents very serious, and if proven factually accurate, strong allegations of religious discrimination." 

    Horn Lake violated the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause when they denied the zoning permit to the Abraham House of God. In the case Sherbert v. Verner, the Supreme Court created the Sherbert Test to determine if government action violates the Free Exercise Clause. The Sherbert Test is composed of three prongs. The first prong questions whether the governmental action imposed a burden on the appellants’ ability to exercise their religion. Horn Lake’s decision to deny the construction of the mosque did place a burden on the ability of the Muslim community to exercise their religion. There are no other mosques in the city of Horn Lake or the rest of the county. It is important for the Muslim community to have a place of worship, and by denying the application on purely discriminatory bases, the burden is even more substantial. Looking at the interpretation of the Sherbert test in Employment Division v. Smith, where it was determined that laws could burden free exercise if they were neutral and generally applicable, it is even more obvious that Horn Lake’s actions fail the Sherbert Test, as the project was denied purely because of its association with Islam. That leads to the second part of the Sherbert Test, determining if the burden on free exercise was justified because of a compelling interest. It is obvious in this case that there was compelling interest in denying the construction of the mosque. The planning commission recommended the project, it met all the requirements for construction. The only reason for the denial was because of blatant islamophobia and religious discrimination. The city aldermen specifically denied the project because it was for the Muslim community. Because the government does not have a compelling state interest in preventing the mosque’s construction, then the denial fails the Sherbert test, and is proven to be in violation of the Free Exercise Clause. 

The religion clauses in the Constitution state “Congress will make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The second part is the Free Exercise Clause. This clause is clearly violated by Lake Horn’s actions, as without reason, the city aldermen attempted to restrict the ability of their Muslim community from exercising their religion. This instance is similar to the Case Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, as it consisted of the City of Hialeah creating laws in a direct effort to suppress the religious practices of the Church of the Lukumi Babalu. In the majority opinion, Kennedy writes that “a law targeting religious beliefs as such is never permissible.” This is almost exactly what happened in Horn Lake. The aldermen specifically rejected the planning permission because of the religious beliefs it represented. They even openly admitted that they denied the mosque because of the beliefs in Islam. Overall, the city of Camp Horn violated the Free Exercise Clause when they denied the Abraham House of God’s construction permit. Its decision failed the Sherbert Test, as there was no compelling state interest, as the proposal met all requirements. Lastly, the city officials in charge of giving permission openly discriminated against the mosque because of religion.