At a Methodist church in suburban Chicago, a worship service is underway.
The call to prayer is not for Christians, but for Muslims from the Irshad Learning Center. They temporarily use the hall in the church.
"Irshad Learning Center is a shelter for faith, for people who want to once in a while get together and pray together, worship, and perhaps help their kids get some acquaintance with their faith and cultural background," said Mojtaba Noursalehi.
Mojtaba Noursalehi is originally from Iran, but is now a U.S. citizen. He's a member of the Board of the Irshad Learning Center. He says many members of the Center are of Iranian descent.
"Unlike churches which are on every street corner, there are no mosques especially with our particular kind of background," he said. "We are looked at here as being from Iran, and in Iran we are looked at as being from the U.S. It's a very peculiar situation even for our kids. We have an identity crisis and this is one situation or one opportunity for us to come together and at least put our voices together and worship together. and that kind of thing."
Members of the Irshad Learning Center do not lack money or a location for their own place of worship. And there's already a building on the property, a former day care center. What they do lack is the permission to use it for worship.
"They were denied a special use permit to use the property as a religious institution," said Kevin Vodak.
Kevin Vodak is an attorney for the Council on American Islamic Relations, a group that advocates for American Muslims. He says denying Irshad a permit violates the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, also known as RLUIPA.
"Basically RLUIPA says that you cannot impose a substantial burden on a religious institution in granting permits or basically allowing a religious institution to use the property as they see fit," he said.
In April, CAIR filed a federal suit against 18 members of the DuPage County Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals. The lawsuit claims that denying the special use permit violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution. Those amendments guarantee basic rights to all Americans.
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