Bernards’Township agrees to Shia mosque, will pay $3.25m to settle lawsuit

A Somerset County town will pay $3.25 million in damages and attorneys’ fees to the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge and must allow a long-delayed mosque to be built under a pair of settlements announced Tuesday.

A Somerset County town will pay $3.25 million in damages and attorneys’ fees to the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge and must allow a long-delayed mosque to be built under a pair of settlements announced Tuesday.

The Islamic Society and the U.S. Justice Department both sued Bernards Township last year after land-use officials denied the society’s mosque application through a “Kafkaesque” process involving dozens of hearings, according to one of the lawsuits.

Under one of the settlements announced Tuesday, Bernards agreed to pay $1.5 million in damages to the Islamic Society and $1.75 million in attorneys’ fees. The town also agreed to allow the mosque. A previous ruling by U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp requires the mosque to build 50 parking spots, instead of the 107 that had been sought by local officials during the permitting process.

“We look forward to welcoming people of all faiths and backgrounds to our mosque,” Mohammad Ali Chaudry, the president of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, said in a statement.