A critical free speech case is developing in Walkersville, MD where the landowner who hoped to sell his property (for millions) to a Muslim group for a religious retreat that would bring up to 10,000 Muslims to the rural town in Frederick Co. MD is now including citizens in his suit. Landowner Moxley was stymied in his plan by a zoning decision and sued the town (see our most recent post here on Walkersville).
Now comes news he is amending his lawsuit to include not just the town but the Citizens group, Citizens for Walkersville, whose members did not want to overcrowd their town and put a strain on sewer, water and roads and otherwise jeopardize the tranquility of their community.
I am not a lawyer, but this is a very important case and I bet Moxley and his Muslim friends are more interested in scaring people into silence then in extracting big bucks from a little town.
If Moxley wins does this mean that any group could come along claiming to be a “religious” group that has been discriminated against and shove any sort of facility down a communities throat when citizens speak up to voice their concern for the quality of their environment?
Walkersville landowner David W. Moxley has amended his lawsuit against the Town of Walkersville to include a grassroots activist group that opposed a deal that would have brought a Muslim retreat center to town…..
The amendment targets Citizens for Walkersville, a group that organized opposition to the Muslim group’s plans and dominated public testimony during appeals board hearings in January and February.
In the Aug. 5 amendment to his federal lawsuit, Moxley alleges that “The officers and members of [Citizens for Walkersville] have conspired and worked in concert with town officials to prevent the [Muslim group] from using the Moxley Farm for its religious purposes.”
The amendment alleges that 20 members of Citizens for Walkersville and president Ed Marino and spokesman Steven R. Berryman “participated in the conspiracy to violate [Moxley] and the [Muslim group’s] rights,” and were “motivated by religious and racial discriminatory animus designed to deprive, directly or indirectly, the [Muslim group] of equal protection of the laws.”
In my opinion this suit is meant to silence citizens.