“Too much traffic, too little parking, the city planning commission decided by a 9-0 vote against the mosque in September 2015. But in December, the mosque sued the city and the Obama Justice Department joined in, claiming the real reason the mosque was denied was because the city was caving to anti-Muslim bigotry in the community. Now, a settlement deal is headed to the Sterling Heights City Council on Tuesday evening. If the council votes to sign the deal, it could be very costly for the city.”

Attorney General Sessions should put a stop to this. The Obama DoJ used its might to crush local opposition to mosques, even when the objections were based on legitimate concerns regarding zoning and other matters. And of course all discussion of Muslim Brotherhood ties and the jihad threat was ruled “Islamophobic.” Sessions needs to stop the persecution of the people in Sterling Heights and elsewhere who don’t want to see a mega-mosque transform their communities.

“Mega-mosque being forced on Christian refugee community,” by Leo Hohmann, WND, February 21, 2017:

A city of 130,000 people in southeastern Michigan is under the gun of Islamic pressure following its denial of a mega-mosque in a residential neighborhood populated largely by Christian refugees who fled Islamic persecution in Iraq.

Sterling Heights already has two mosques, but a third, the American Islamic Community Center, applied for a permit and was rejected after it was determined its proposed use was incompatible with the residential area. Too much traffic, too little parking, the city planning commission decided by a 9-0 vote against the mosque in September 2015.

But in December, the mosque sued the city and the Obama Justice Department joined in, claiming the real reason the mosque was denied was because the city was caving to anti-Muslim bigotry in the community. Now, a settlement deal is headed to the Sterling Heights City Council on Tuesday evening. If the council votes to sign the deal, it could be very costly for the city.

Local residents fear it’s a bad deal, something similar to the Obama DOJ-orchestrated deal forced upon nearby Pittsfield Township, Michigan, last year. That town had to pay out $1.7 million to local Muslims to whom it had denied a permit for an Islamic school, and township employees were ordered to undergo sensitivity training to assure they never again discriminate against Muslims.

Sessions to the rescue?

Attorney General Jeff Sessions could cancel any similar deal from taking effect in Sterling Heights, but only if he is aware of it and acts quickly.

“If the city council is found to be cooperating with the Obama DOJ staff who are expediting this consent order to stick it to the Sessions/Trump team, then this city will go nuts,” said Dick Manaserri, spokesman for Secure Michigan, a group formed to educate the public on Shariah law and how it differs from American law.

In last November’s presidential election, Donald Trump carried Sterling Heights, normally a Democratic Party stronghold, by 56 to 44 percent over Hillary Clinton. He also carried Macomb County, home to Sterling Heights and also a Democratic-oriented county.

But Trump’s new AG, Sessions, is apparently not yet fully in control of the Justice Department, which includes many holdovers from the Obama administration.

“Why else would Jeff Sessions not dismiss the Obama DOJ lawsuit against Sterling Heights?” Manaserri asks. “We have been told by legal experts that he has the power to simply dismiss the lawsuit. A consent order typically implies wrongdoing with the application of penalties.”

When the planning commission denied the mosque permit in September 2015, hundreds of Sterling Heights residents gathered outside City Hall to celebrate. That celebration was caught on video, and critics cited it as evidence the city was somehow biased against Muslims.

Tom Mitchell is a resident of Sterling Heights whose family has been there since 1965. He’s seen the city’s transformation over the past couple of decades under the control of what he calls “progressives.” He avoids the world “Democrat” because the city’s elections are technically nonpartisan.

“I feel that with the left taking over, they are destroying this community. I don’t want to become another Dearborn or a Hamtramck. And our elected officials are enabling this takeover,” he said.

Hamtramck, just a few miles south of Sterling Heights, became the nation’s first city with a Muslim-majority city council in 2016, and a large portion of Dearborn resembles a Middle Eastern country with signs in Arabic and women walking the streets with their faces veiled.

He said it’s not a matter of discrimination. Churches have been denied building projects in the past because their sites were too close to residential housing. They didn’t get the federal government to sue the city; they simply picked another site.

“I truly believe this one man, Mr. Sessions, has the power to throw out any consent decree that was engineered by Obama’s Department of Justice. That is our hope,” Mitchell said. “In fact, I know of hundreds of us who are praying for that opportunity to get it in Jeff Sessions’ hands, before Tuesday night, because once it’s signed, how do you overturn that? Signing it is tantamount to a consent that we’re a bunch of bigots here in Sterling Heights.”…