When two longtime Mississippi residents, Riyadh Elkhayyat and Maher Abuirshaid, sought to build a mosque in a suburb in the north of the state, they were met with hostility.

Despite zoning that allowed them to build "as of right" and having met all construction requirements, the City of Horn Lake, a community in DeSoto County less than 20 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, denied them permits. Officials cited concerns over noise and traffic congestion and said the city's water mains were inadequate to support fire sprinklers in the building.

The duo later alleged in court those reasons were largely pretextual and were the cover for deeper issues: distrust, xenophobia, and anti-Muslim prejudice.

"They had fear that our Muslim community is going to come here, and it's going to mess up their neighborhood, their daily lives," said Abuirshaid, a Palestinian-born man who has lived in the United States for 33 years, 17 of them in Mississippi. He owns a gas station in the area.

"It's just Islamophobia," he told Law360. "They don't know who we are, and they're just scared."

Elkhayyat also has deep ties to the community where he lives. He came to the United States in 1982, at age 13, and lived for two decades in Texas before moving to Mississippi 22 years ago. He owns a distribution company that supplies convenience stores.

Facing an uphill battle in building the mosque, which they intend to name Abraham House Of God, the two congregants filed a lawsuit in federal court in November, assisted by the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP attorneys working pro bono.

In their complaint, Elkhayyat and Abuirshaid sought an injunction in federal court claiming the city violated federal laws and their constitutional rights, including their right to profess the religion they choose. In an order issued the day the complaint was filed, U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills for the Northern District of Mississippi found the allegations serious and encouraged the parties to settle.

Earlier this month, Judge Mills signed off on a consent decree into which the congregants entered with the city after two months of negotiations. The judge ordered the city to let the mosque plan go forward and awarded the plaintiffs $25,000 in out-of-pocket costs that resulted from the delay in the construction. The court also retains jurisdiction for five years over matter, the order, issued on Jan. 3, says.

"It was a victory for our clients, and I think as important for their community, a complete vindication of their rights," Jonathan Youngwood, global co-chair of Simpson Thacher's litigation department, told Law360. "We're very pleased that the city has seen the errors of its ways," he said.

The City of Horn Lake never issued a formal apology. As part of the settlement, the city denied discriminating against the plaintiffs on the basis of religion.

Representatives of the City of Horn Lake and Billy Campbell of Hunt Ross & Allen PA, the firm representing the city's officials, did not return emails and phone calls seeking comments on the case.

There are currently no mosques in DeSoto County, where about 15 to 25 Muslim families live, according to the complaint. People wishing to pray have to drive 45 minutes to Oxford or cross the state line into Tennessee to find a place of worship.

The prospect of building one in Horn Lake, a suburb that has a Church Plaza and a Church Road, and where Christian churches abound, put the community on edge. The antagonism of some residents, including city officials, was overt.

"They will never assimilate. Their religion is to take over and kill the infidel. That's us," a resident posted in a Facebook group set up by people opposing the mosque's construction.

Another resident told the Muslim congregants they would only be able to build the mosque "over our dead bodies," according to the complaint.

Introducing a motion to deny the building permits, a member of the city's Board of Aldermen told his peers, "If you let them build it, they will come. So I think we need to stop it before it gets here."

Joshua Tom, an attorney with the local ACLU who counseled the plaintiffs, said the animus over the mosque is a case in point for an anti-Muslim sentiment that is pervasive in Mississippi, a state he called "very Christian."

"The city of Horn Lake discriminated against our clients, and the lawsuit makes clear that that type of discrimination won't stand in Mississippi or in our country," Tom said.

In the complaint, the congregants said the city violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a 2000 law providing legal protections for individuals and groups facing discrimination in land-use decisions, and infringed on their rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

While considering the application for a permit, Horn Lake city officials said the presence of loudspeakers and loud calls to prayer would disturb the neighborhood around. The mosque's plan did not include loudspeakers, Youngwood said.

When it became apparent that Elkhayyat and Abuirshaid had everything in order to obtain a permit, the opposition by the officials turned to assumptions and tropes about Muslims: problems assimilating, anti-semitism and allegiance to religious rules over the laws of the country.

"It was pretty much a fully disclosed bias," Youngwood said.

Abuirshaid and Elkhayyat said that since the consent decree was filed, the city had been cooperative. On Monday, it approved the site plan for the mosque. The construction designs are being finalized, they said.

"Everything is going smooth. I don't think there would be any issue because I think that the city has realized the error or the mistakes they made," Abuirshaid said. "I know down the road, I assure you, our relationship with the neighborhood, with the community, with the churches, will be improved. And they are going to come to know who we are as a people."

--Editing by Peter Rozovsky.

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