edition.cnn.com

(CNN) — The long-running battle between a Tennessee Muslim community and its critics over a new mosque took a dramatic turn with a county judge’s ruling that could bring construction to a halt.
“Everyone is really shocked, many people are crying about this,” Imam Osama Bahloul, leader of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro (ICM), said Wednesday.
“We did exactly what other churches in the county did,” he said. “We followed the same process that other churches did. Why did this happen? Some people feel like it is discrimination.”
The judge, Chancellor Robert Corlew, ruled Tuesday that plans for the new mosque, previously approved by a local planning commission, are now “void and of no effect.”