State seeks to dismiss Nashville mosque discrimination suit

The center argued in a September federal lawsuit that its Nashville International Academy school was disqualified from a religious tax exemption because the center followed its religious beliefs in a banking deal.

"The way the state applied the tax laws in this case affected Islamic Center of Nashville differently than it would affect other religions, which is specifically what the Constitution and the federal religious land use statute are designed to prevent," said Christina Jump, a lawyer at the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America, an advocacy firm that represents the Nashville center.