Here’s a story that earlier this year was being presented as a morality tale, where a good-hearted Muslim, Mr. Mohammad Ali Chaudry, wanted nothing more than to play by the rules in applying for permission to build a mosque, and was opposed by a town full of anti-Muslim bigots. But Good triumphed in the end, while Evil was vanquished, and not only is Mr. Chaudry now allowed to build the mosque, but the town must pay — literally — for its putative sin of bigotry (Islamophobia Division) by giving Mr. Chaudry $3.25 million.
The left-wing Guardian tells the tale:
Forty years ago, Mohammad Ali Chaudry, a Pakistani-born economist, made his home outside New York City. He came for an executive job at the telecoms company AT&T, and ended up working there for decades. Like many immigrants to the US, Chaudry came to wholeheartedly believe – perhaps more fervently than his native-born neighbors – in the triumphal story that Americans tell about their nation: how it was always growing stronger through change, melding the many into one through the process of assimilation. Chaudry was a devout Muslim. But to him, it always seemed the things that made him different mattered less than the ways in which he had proved he was the same.
Chaudry and his wife, who is from Italy, raised three children on a street called Manor Drive, in the town of Basking Ridge, in the centre of the state of New Jersey. This is not the “Jersey” of popular imagination – the land of belching smokestacks immortalised in Bruce Springsteen’s working-class anthems. Basking Ridge is out in horse country, an area of rolling green hills and white-steepled churches, not far from Bedminster, where Donald Trump has his summer estate. In keeping with the values of his adopted community, Chaudry became an active member of the local Republican party and a conspicuous civic presence, running for various elected boards. In 2004, at the height of George W.Bush’s war in Iraq, Chaudry became the first Pakistani-American to serve as mayor of a municipality in the US.
Long after Chaudry retired from both AT&T and electoral politics, he continued to keep a busy schedule of volunteer activities, most focused on building religious tolerance. He ran a small nonprofit organisation called the Center for Understanding Islam, and taught classes at local universities. Chaudry is bantam-sized, with a silvery moustache and a starchy manner, and despite his age – now 75 – he possesses a bottomless reservoir of diligent energy. He would travel the state, speaking to audiences young and old, always dressing the part of a politician, with a little American flag badge in his lapel. If there was prejudice around him in his adopted hometown, Chaudry later said that “it was not obvious, or visible, or overt.”
An American immigrant success story, a wonderful man, with a busy schedule of volunteer activities, but “most focused on building religious tolerance.” With his “bottomless energy,” he “travels the state” speaking to “audiences young and old.” It appears, however, that the audiences he addresses are non-Muslims, and the “religious tolerance” he focuses on is tolerance for Muslims, and not tolerance by Muslims.
That [Chaudry’s touching trust in his non-Muslim neighbors] changed in 2011, when he found a new cause: building a mosque in Basking Ridge. For years, Chaudry and other local Muslims had been using a community centre for a makeshift Friday service. But Chaudry decided that the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge needed a permanent place to pray, and he located what he believed to be a suitable site: a four-acre lot occupied by a rundown Dutch Colonial house. Soon after purchasing it, Chaudry held an open house to greet the neighbours. “There was not too much tension,” he said. “It was kind of jovial.” He put the letters “ISBR” on the mailbox in front of the house, to announce the Islamic Society’s arrival.
Then someone smashed the mailbox. “I was, of course, very surprised,” Chaudry said. Under New Jersey’s planning laws, the Islamic Society had to secure the approval of the municipal government to build the mosque, and from his experience as a public official, Chaudry knew that the town, which prided itself on its quaint homes and a history dating back to colonial times, was resistant to new development of any kind. But this was a house of worship, and he was someone well-known to the community. “It’s not that I was expecting any favours,” Chaudry said. “I expected them to be fair.” What shocked him, though, was the hatred.
“Hatred”? Why is he so determined to call opposition to his mosque a matter of hatred, when it appears to have been all about zoning? Chaudry had, after all, been elected to Bernard Township’s (in which Basking Ride is located) school board repeatedly, and served six years in the 1990s. He then was elected to the township’s governing committee. He became the town’s mayor in 2001, as that job rotated among committee members making him the first Pakistani-American mayor in the nation. The town seemed proud of this distinction.
There is no evidence, none, that any of those on the zoning board were motivated by “hatred.” The town “seemed proud” to have the first Pakistani-American mayor in the nation.
Chaudry sued the town when he failed to get his way on a zoning variance.
Before the case was finally settled, Township Mayor Carol Bianchi defended the “professionalism” of the zoning board:
“None of them are accused in the lawsuits of making any derogatory remarks about Muslims or Mr. Chaudry,” Bianchi said. “They are all highly educated, accomplished people who know the law.”
For example, Jonathan Drill co-wrote the 2015 edition of “Cox and Koenig, New Jersey Zoning and Land Use Adminstration” (Gann) described by the publisher “as New Jersey’s premier land use and zoning treatise and serves as a practical guide through the intricacies of New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL).”
Jodi Lee Alper is a former U.S. Attorney and Environmental Protection Agency lawyer.
Kathleen Piedici is a strategic business planner who holds a Rutgers MBA, as well as degrees and certificates from the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.
One board member, who asked not to be identified because of the lawsuits, said the board “wanted approve the mosque. We really did.”
What needs to be noted is that before the application for building the mosque by Mr. Chaudry was first submitted on April 20, 2012, the Presbyterian Church just down the street from where the mosque was to be located made its own application to the zoning board, to make improvements to its property. But after only two hearings, this much more modest request by the church was denied, and its backers did not even attempt to re-apply. Yet this telling fact is missing from The Guardian’s version of events.
Yet Mr. Chaudry was allowed to have not two, but 39 hearings, showing a great willingness on the part of the Board to give him every chance to modify his application so as to meet their requirements. It was clear that the Planning Board members wanted his application to succeed. But Mohammed Ali Chaudry was not interested in any modification of his plan. As one of the zoning board’s members said, “when Chaudry fired his local land use attorney and hired Robert Raymar, a Newark litigator, there was a feeling that he ‘no longer wanted the mosque; he wanted a lawsuit.’’
When the zoning board’s denial came in December 2016, Chaudry had the option to appeal in Somerset County Superior Court. He chose instead to sue the township, hiring the New York law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. He had no interest in adjusting to the zoning board’s requirements. He saw a chance to make a dispute over zoning regulations into a morality tale, with the Planning Board presented as anti-Islam, though not the slightest evidence of bigotry on the part of any of its members was unearthed by Chaudry’s very aggressive lawyers.
The Guardian reported that ‘“Chaudry filed a lawsuit alleging religious prejudice” and his lawyers claimed to have uncovered “racially charged emails among officials opposed to his plan.” No evidence was presented, none, of any “racially charged emails among officials opposed to his plan.” There were a few townspeople, who had no say in the zoning board’s decisions, who made unflattering remarks about Chaudry’s aggressive modus operandi, but there was nothing relating to Islam. The Guardian mentions a group of townspeople who instituted a group for “responsible development” — the scare quotes are provided by The Guardian’s reporter, who wants readers to believe those townspeople were in fact not interested in zoning regulations at all, but were prompted entirely by anti-Muslim bigotry. But what about the previous turning down of the Presbyterian Church’s application for a zoning variance?
Here is how The Guardian “reports” on the wave of “Islamophobia”:
Long before Trump came along to capitalise on it, though, Islamophobia was building in the US, bubbling up like swamp gas from the depths. Often, racial conflict would manifest itself in small, seemingly isolated local planning fights over proposals to build mosques. The US Department of Justice, which staunchly defended the rights of Muslims during the Obama administration, noted a sharp increase in such mosque disputes between 2010 and 2016. Many took place in conservative locales such as rural Murfreesboro, Tennessee. But they also broke out in unexpected places such as Basking Ridge: a wealthy and well-educated community in the outwardly tolerant north-eastern US.
If there are more mosque disputes between 2010 and 2016, that does not necessarily reflect what The Guardian calls “Islamophobia.” It could reflect a much more aggressive stance by Muslim groups who see the chance to get their projects approved, over the reasonable objections of zoning boards, by claiming that what are zoning disputes are really displays of religious prejudice, and threatening litigation of the kind Mr. Chaudry engaged in, and won — won so big that many zoning boards in this country are no doubt now terrified to apply their normal criteria to mosque applications.
Rob Crawford says
Let him build a mosque in Pakistan.
Ma says
They will convert America into Pakistan. A mosque is not a place a worship but a place of prayer/congregation, which by the way can be done at a community centre too or preferably at home. Praying in public places in huge numbers is nothing but to demonstrate the power.
mortimer says
Why would sane people welcome a supremacist, misogynistic death cult into their midst. They would NOT welcome a death cult.
Islam TAKES CHARGE wherever it goes, because that is the MANDATE OF ISLAM, namely to IMPOSE discriminatory Sharia law and NOT TO SHARE POWER, but to DOMINATE and become the SUPREME POWER and AUTHORITY over and above all others.
What is it that the judges do not understand about the word SUPREMACISM?
Is SUPREMACISM permitted under the US constitution … or would that be ‘establishment of religion’?
I think we know the answer. Why do the judges not understand?
BC says
The horrific thing is that the legal profession and sympathetic judges are aiding and abetting the Islamists ambitions against the very people they are elected to serve
beyondculturewars says
The same thing happened almost to a small town within Denver (Glendale–akin to Tower Hamlets). The big guns came out to intimidate the town council. Luckily, the makeover plan did not succeed, and the town council was awarded damages and lawyers’ fees.
Yet, this is the new normal all over America. Coastal and foreign money permeating small town America to bully the town councils and bulldoze the Americana of our past.
Marty says
If chaudry is really a “devout muslim” then he must desire and will presumably work for the slaughter or enslavement of non-muslims to please allah as well as the imposition of violent and brutal sharia law.
gravenimage says
Yep.
vyx says
Something similar is happening in Sterling Heights, a VERY Christian suburb in Metro Detroit. The judicial system is forcing the city to build a mosque in a residential area and the city agreed, although they circumvented zoning laws. The immediate area also has a Chaldean population; they’re being thrown under the bus. Now there’s a Federal lawsuit over it.
Rev G says
I work less than two miles from the site. You are correct, the city first turned down the building permit over land use requirements, there were a number of issues. The site is also in a largely Chaldean area.
I was born and lived my early years in Dearborn, we moved to Sterling Hts while I was still in school. I live a few miles up the road today, but work in Sterling Hts. We are starting to see hijabs walking the streets here as well. I was almost hit by a muslim woman driver in a parking gas station parking lot, 3 miles from the coerced mosque site.
The world needs to wake up. Fast.
Terry Gain says
Devout Muslims believe Sharia Law takes precedence over domestic law. This is conquest. Every non-Muslim who does not fear Islam is brain dead and not only ignorant about Islamic doctrine and history but also incapable of what is taking place today in western democracies. The conquest takes many forms, but it is clearly a conquest as required by Islamic doctrine. Islam will prevail unless Muslim immigration is ended.
mgoldberg says
If someone has the email address(s) to the local newspapers in Bernardsville, Basking Ridge etc, please provide them and or send this crisp analysis to the letters to the editor of the newspapers. The citizens of those towns deserve to understand what kind of wool is being pulled over their eyes.
Buraq says
The article states that: ‘… Basking Ridge is out in horse country, an area of rolling green hills and white-steepled churches, not far from Bedminster, where Donald Trump has his summer estate.’
I am not at all familiar with the area, but let’s suppose the ‘bantam sized’ and bantam brained Mr Chaudery could wave a magic wand and a Mosque would appear, how many Muslims would there be to listen to a typical spittle-flecked, Jew-hating sermon on a Friday afternoon?
The clown Chaudery, obviously, and ………? I’m saying; What is the point of building a Mosque in an area where honor-killing, FGM practicing types are probably thin on the ground, mercifully?!
Wellington says
“…tolerance for Muslims, and not tolerance by Muslims.”
Sums up a lot.
Barbara says
We need some restrictions to stop the epidemic of lawsuits. Private citizens, businesses, schools and local governments all face the abuse of lawsuits. More cases need to be sent to Small Claim Court where no lawyers are allowed, and the limits of Small Claims Court needs to be raised. In case like this, if the damages could be limited to $10,000, and lawyers could be forbidden. Then the judge could decide if the plaintiff unfairly was denied the right to build and then order the city to let him build if the case is unfair. If the judge ruled against the plaintiff, then at least the city will not have huge court expenses deciding a case like this.
Brian hoff says
It arenot going happen small claim court only handle very minor case no other court want to handle. All zoneing and land use cases donot goto small claim court.
Brian hoff says
Small claim courts donot handle murder cases only criminal courth handle murder cases.
somehistory says
That was his plan all along. The getting into politics, the travel around the state….knowing he was accepted in the community, but also knowing he was going to lie like the cheap rug upon which he bows to his satanic beast, in order to get his way….build the barracks for preying and warfare, and get money from the people who accepted and befriended him.
Scum.
HugoHackenbush says
So…If the “Church Of The Glorious BLT Sandwich” (peace be upon the BLT) wants to open next door to the mosque will they be able to get a variance? If they do get to build would that also be taken as evidence of Islamophobia? They should quietly recruit a Hindu or Wiccan group to open up next door.
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: The Mosque At Basking Ridge: A Morality Tale? (Part 1)
……………………
Lawfare–and now that these Muslims have soaked the town for Jizya, it will only encourage them.
Berengaria says
This Tale of Muslim Conquest could be retold in every city & town in America. First the demands of the whining voiced Muslim are “whispered” into the ear of a sympathetic Mayor, then, a little louder, the Muslim makes another request. Chaudry is in the third phase, he is able use the Legal system to make demands for him.
He has ingratiated himself inside the Local Political Arena, so he is now ready to Strike.
Regardless of the Locale, the procedure is usually the same with slight variations. Alas! You have a Bloody Mosque, permanently!
Joy says
Chaudry really worked this “heist” to a fare-thee-well! If he does manage to build the damn mosque, maybe an “accidental” fire could eventually consume it…… Of course, while he was working full time for AT&T, he didn’t have the time (or wherewithal) to pursue his odious religious conquest!
Vicky says
Our own government is using rich diabolical muslims to indoctrinate our children, kill us and take what we have.
M says
Ban islam, mosques. Trump shouldn’t have allowed this. he was Too busy destroying the constitution bc his religion christianity is soooooo peaceful
gravenimage says
No, Trump can’t constitutionally ban Islam.
Ed says
The take-away lesson that should be apparent is the resolve that this ideology teaches its followers. Basically, never give up, turn any adversity into your favour by any means. This is in direct contrast to our Western society where most people would give up and walk away. I’m curious about whether you devoted any attention to how the Crusades dealt with Islam and maybe how it reinforced Muslims’ animosity towards the Infidel as a result in your book, Robert. Will buy a copy to see.
Politicianophobia says
Allah will be pleased. Peace be upon you. This is the end of man’s arrogance and selfishness throughout the world, and the implementation of the rule of the DEVINE SHARI’AH in human affairs. Now go back to sleep.