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Tuesday, April 30, 2024
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Islamic group announces $580,000 settlement with Des Plaines

By  Chacour Koop | Daily Herald
   
SHARE Islamic group announces $580,000 settlement with Des Plaines
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Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, speaks during a news conference Tuesday about a lawsuit settlement with Des Plaines. “This ultimately is about the reality that American Muslims are a part of the American fabric,” Rehab said. | Chacour Koop/Daily Herald staff photographer

Des Plaines has agreed to pay a Muslim group $580,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming aldermen wrongfully denied a request to open a mosque in the city, officials said during a Tuesday news conference.

The settlement with the Society of American Bosnians and Herzegovinians, a group including immigrants who fled war-torn Yugoslavia in the 1990s, comes after the city agreed to a separate settlement Monday with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Tony Peraica, who represented the group, said aldermen used concerns about parking and traffic as an excuse to deny the zoning change. In fact, he said, the city’s master plan called for the property to be zoned down to institutional or residential development.

“This is about human beings and their yearning to practice religion in their homeland,” Peraica said. “They’re proud to call America home.”

Read more of the story at the Daily Herald

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