Muslims, Troy settle over mosque
Amount far less than sought in hopes of building positive relationship
A Muslim group and the city of Troy have reached a settlement to resolve the Muslims’ four-year legal battle to open a mosque, the two sides announced Tuesday.
They issued a joint news release after the Troy City Council voted Monday night to accept the deal. Both sides said they were happy to put the legal struggle behind them, saying they now seek friendly ties.
What wasn’t revealed, however, was exactly what number ended the last big dispute in this contentious saga. That number? Just how much money Troy taxpayers must shell out.
Although the amount is being kept secret by both sides, the Free Press learned the approximate amount. It’s a payout far lower than the $1.9 million that the Muslims sought in federal court. It’s also far lower than the $1.7 million that Muslims represented by the same nonprofit Islamic group obtained from Pittsfield Township, in a similar case several years ago. And it’s considerably less than the $1.5 million extracted in a mosque settlement from Sterling Heights, according to previous news reports.
Still, like any compromise, it’s more than the figure that Troy offered in its legal briefs: $0.00.
The mosque actually has been quietly operating for two months, following a federal judge’s scathing ruling in March. The judge ruled that the city had violated federal law by using its zoning ordinance, for years, to block the Muslim group’s repeated efforts to cooperate with the city, purchase property and open a site for religious and community meetings.
In September, vindicated by a favorable ruling in federal court, members of Adam Community Center began holding religious services in the remodeled interior of a former Japanese steakhouse on Rochester Road near Wattles. The city then filed a motion claiming, in effect, “No harm, no foul.” Because the mosque was open and operating, the city maintained, any monetary claims should be dismissed by the court.
The Muslims countered with evidence presented to U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds. They said they’d spent significant sums in their long-thwarted efforts to find a mosque site that Troy officials would accept. Over the course of nearly a decade, they’d hired architectural and construction professionals, designed sites, submitted plans to City Hall, paid lawyers to represent them at hearings, and bought property that they were forced to sell at a loss after city zoning officials improperly deemed it unfit for a house of Muslim worship — even though similar sites had been long used in Troy by Christian churches, according to Edmunds’ ruling against Troy, issued in March.
At that point, Edmunds ordered the two sides to the negotiating table … and waited. Months passed. Rumors flew that Troy might try to appeal Edmunds’ ruling, in the face of her unqualified wording that said Troy had grossly violated a potent federal law — the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, used against many a town nationwide that illegally tried to stifle religion.
Finally, Troy and the Muslims agreed on a number. Troy Mayor Ethan Baker would not so much as hint on the figure when a reporter inquired. In a statement, and speaking for the City Council, Baker said: “We are grateful that we were able to amicably resolve the pending case and look forward to continuing a positive relationship.” When a resident asked for the amount at Monday’s City Council meeting, Troy City Attorney Lori Grigg Bluhm said she couldn’t reveal it.
The attorney for the Muslim side, however, gave the Free Press a strong indication of how much her side compromised. The capitulation came after months of legal arguments supporting the Muslims’ $1.9 million claim for damages and attorney fees. Asked whether the final figure was between $500,000 and $1 million, Amy Doukoure said, “Yes, and it’s actually much closer to $500,000.” And why so low?
“We wanted the parties to have a positive relationship going forward,” said Doukoure, who is the staff attorney for CAIR Michigan. CAIR stands for Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nationwide advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Dropping the settlement amount by about two-thirds was desirable “when you’re going to have to go to the city for things like traffic management during holidays and building permits to remodel the interior and the exterior façade,” she said. In addition, many of the mosque’s members are Troy residents, and they didn’t want friends and neighbors to think that they’d saddled the city’s taxpayers with an onerous settlement, Doukoure said. So “we really felt we needed to compromise.”
From the outside, the mosque still looks much like it did during its life as Sakura Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi. The restaurant’s aging sign still stands in front. Now that the two sides have signed the settlement, leaders of Troy’s mosque — the Adam Community Center First Jamiah Masjid of Troy — can proceed with plans to “give the exterior facade a traditional look,” Doukoure said.
If the settlement comes, as indications appear, to about $650,000, that works out to $7.39 for each of Troy’s 88,000 residents, according to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) population estimates.
Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com