Tennessee Muslims sue to open mosque July 18, 2012 -- Updated 2018 GMT (0418 HKT) Islamic Center of Murfreesboro wants to open its mosque for Ramadan A county judge halted the project in June The center says it's being subjected to a double standard (CNN) -- A Tennessee Islamic center has asked a federal court to clear the way for a new mosque to open in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at sundown Thursday. Plans for the mosque in Murfreesboro, near Nashville, have resulted in threats to the center and a lawsuit that led to a county judge's order shutting down the project in June. The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro is now asking a federal judge to allow the mosque to open, arguing that it is being blocked "merely because local anti-Islamic protests have made the mosque controversial." U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell set a hearing on the issue for Thursday afternoon in Nashville. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the center by the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, argues that the center was ordered to meet "a heightened standard of notice in the zoning process" because of objections by some Murfreesboro residents. "This double standard for the mosque has deprived ICM of its legal rights under federal law and the Constitution, serves no public purpose and threatens to cripple ICM's ability to observe Ramadan," the lawsuit states. The project had been approved by a planning commission and was under construction when Rutherford County Chancellor Robert Corlew struck down that approval in June. The construction site had been vandalized multiple times, including by an arson attack in 2010, and federal authorities have charged a Texas man with calling in a bomb threat to the center before last year's anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. CNN's Joe Sutton contributed to this report.