In 1996, Answers in Genesis Ministries tried to get some property rezoned so they could build a museum that would teach world history from a biblical perspective. Local atheist groups rallied the neighbors enough that the county zoning commission voted to deny the request to rezone the property in question.
County officials cited that there was a lack of proper infrastructure to support the project, however many of the opponents made no effort to hide their religious reasons for opposing the construction of a Christian museum in their area.
A couple of years later, Answers in Genesis found another piece of property and again went before the county zoning commission to request the property be rezoned and once again atheists and liberals fought the effort. They testified at the public hearings that it was once again an infrastructure issue, but the truth came out when one local resident told the zoning panel at the end of her testimony that she didn’t want them evangelizing her neighborhood.
Even the local, national and international press made the ministry’s case out to be one of religion. There were outright lies published in newspapers, television and the internet. And through it all, no federal authorities intervened on the grounds of religious discrimination, especially in the first instance when the ministry was denied their rezoning request.
However, things are different when it comes to the Muslims. The Islamic Center of South Bay, California went before the Lomita city council in 2010, requesting the right to expand their facility. The city council denied their request on the grounds that the expansion of their worship center would surpass the space permitted on the land they occupied.
The Muslims believe that they were discriminated against in the city’s decision and that denial violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). So true to form for our Muslim controlled government, the Department of Justice has stepped in and has launched an investigation into the city of Lomita.
Christi Hogin, an attorney for the city of Lomita verified that the request from the Islamic Center of South Bay to increase the size of their worship center exceeded that allowed by city planning and zoning ordinances and that this was the reason the request had had been turned down.
When Answers in Genesis was denied a rezoning request, the topic of their being discriminated against because of their Christian views was known to the entire world. But there was no sign of the DOJ jumping in to investigate if their rights had been violated. And this was at a time when the department was not being run by an attorney general that has strong Muslim affinities nor was the country being run by a Muslim president.
Now that we do have a Muslim president and perhaps a closet Muslim attorney general, they are quick to jump in to save their Islamic brothers from being legally denied their expansion request. And I bet we’re going to see more of these cases in the very near future.
