Tennesse Mosque Opens Friday

(MURFREESBORO, Tenn.) -- The Tennessee mosque that has overcome a two-year legal battle, protests, vandalism and bomb threats will hold its first prayers in the structure Friday, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has been at the center of a controversy since 2009, after its congregation purchased $1 million worth of land outside of the city and started constructing a $2 million facility. In 2010, someone spray-painted a sign at the site with the words, "NOT WELCOME." A construction vehicle was later set on fire and bomb threats were called into the center's offices, the paper says.

When local residents sued in state court, saying the county hadn't followed proper zoning procedure and open-records law when it approved the construction, and stated in the lawsuit that they would be "harmed by the risk of terrorism," a state judge ruled in their favor. But the Justice Department and the mosque filed suit in U.S. District Court, and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that allowed the mosque to open now, during Islam's holy month of Ramadan, according to the Journal.

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