Last March, a Florida state circuit court judge issued a controversial order providing that Islamic law would be used in deciding whether to enforce an arbitration award between a mosque and certain trustees of the mosque who had been removed from office. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's Tampa Bay Times reports that now the same judge has dismissed the lawsuit on different grounds. Circuit Judge Richard Nielsen held that the court cannot intervene in an internal church governance dispute. Underlying the mosque dispute is control over $2.2 million that the mosque received when some of its property was taken by the state for a road project.
UPDATE: Here is the full text of the court's opinion as well as of the parties' motions and arguments relating to dismissal of the suit. [Thanks to Volokh Conspiracy for the documents.]
