The town of Dudley, Massachusetts has reached an agreement to settle a suit brought by the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester that will allow a Muslim cemetery to be located in the town. Initial denial of permits led to widely publicized charges of religious discrimination. The
Boston Globe reports:
The settlement, approved Thursday evening by the Dudley Board of Selectmen, should result in an initial 6-acre cemetery on 55 acres of former farmland that would provide enough graves for “several generations of families of the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester,” said Jay Talerman, ... a lawyer for the Islamic Society. Along with some wetlands, the site also contains about another 6 acres that would be suitable for cemetery plots, but under the deal the Islamic Society agrees not to seek to expand the initial cemetery for at least a decade, he said....
Under the new settlement, the cemetery project will come back before the Dudley Zoning Board of Appeals, where “we’ve agreed there will be a special permit granted on mutually agreeable conditions,” [John] Davis [the town's counsel] said. The project will then be reviewed by the Board of Health, and, if plans affect wetlands, by the Conservation Commission...
