Court Allows Resumption of Construction for Daegu Islamic Temple Despite Residents' Opposition

Court: "Concerns about resident emotional distress, property rights infringement, and slumization are not grounds for building invalidation or cancellation"

Activists from human rights organizations, including the Migrant Workers Equality Solidarity, held a press conference on June 16 last year in front of the National Human Rights Commission in Jung-gu, Seoul, regarding a petition to the Human Rights Commission about the suspension of construction of an Islamic temple by the Buk-gu Office of Daegu. They urged the immediate approval of the resumption of construction, stating that halting the construction of the Islamic temple is discrimination that damages religious pluralism and cultural diversity. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] Amid a two-year halt in the construction of an Islamic temple due to conflicts between residents of Daehyeon-dong, Buk-gu, Daegu, and the building owners, the court ruled in favor of the building owners in the appeal trial.

The 1st Administrative Division of the Daegu High Court (Presiding Judge Kim Tae-hyun) announced on the 22nd that it dismissed the appeal filed by Buk-gu against the 'Cancellation of Construction Suspension Order' lawsuit filed by the Islamic building owners of Buk-gu. Furthermore, the court ordered that all costs incurred during the appeal trial be borne by the defendant's auxiliary participants. The auxiliary participants on the defendant's side are residents opposing the construction of the Islamic temple.

The court stated the reason for its ruling: "The administrative disposition by Buk-gu Office in this case has procedural defects as it did not provide prior notice or an opportunity to submit opinions to the plaintiffs as required by the Administrative Procedures Act, and there is a substantive defect in that the defendant issued the disposition without any legal basis despite the plaintiffs not violating any orders or dispositions under the Building Act."

It continued, "The reasons for the construction suspension order cited by the defendant are merely residents' emotional distress, infringement of property rights, and concerns about slum formation, and do not constitute grounds for invalidating or canceling the original building permit. The reasons claimed by the defendant's auxiliary participants and the original grounds for the construction suspension order cannot be considered fundamentally identical in their underlying social facts."

The conflict between local residents and the building owners arose in December 2020 when construction of the Islamic temple in Daehyeon-dong began. Residents collectively protested to Buk-gu Office citing infringement of property rights and noise issues, and Buk-gu Office issued an administrative order to suspend construction of the Islamic temple that same month, halting the temple's construction for over six months.

In response, eight Islamic temple building owners filed a lawsuit against the Buk-gu Office seeking cancellation of the construction suspension order, and the first trial court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in December last year, allowing the building owners to resume construction.

The first trial court judged, "Buk-gu Office's construction suspension order violated procedural requirements by not providing prior notice and an opportunity to submit opinions as stipulated in the Administrative Procedures Act, and the order did not specify the legal basis or grounds for the disposition. Issuing a construction suspension order based on collective complaints without legal grounds is an unlawful disposition contrary to the principle of rule of law administration."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.