MURFREESBORO (AP) - Rutherford County officials on Thursday filed notice that they are appealing a judge's ruling that voided the approval for a local mosque's construction.

The filing questions whether Chancellor Robert Corlew erred when he ruled recently that county officials failed to take extra steps to make sure the public was aware of a May 2010 Planning Commission meeting at which the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was approved.

Corlew implied in his ruling last month that extra steps were necessary because of the intense public interest in the project.

The appeal notice suggests that holding the Islamic center to a different standard could amount to religious discrimination, in violation of the Tennessee and U.S. constitutions.

Although there has been a mosque in the community for decades, it is tucked into the back of an office park and many residents were unaware of it. Mosque members say they need a new building becau se they have outgrown their old space. But the approval of what they hope will eventually become a 52,000-square-foot campus with spaces for worship, special events and athletic facilities shone a spotlight on Murfreesboro's growing Muslim community.

Shortly after that approval, mosque opponents began packing county meetings to speak against it. They even held a rally that attracted about 1,000 people, with equal numbers for and against the mosque.

In August 2010, the opposition took a violent turn when someone set fire to construction equipment on the site, prompting federal officials to offer a $20,000 reward. That case has not been solved, but on Thursday federal prosecutors filed charges against a Texas man they accused of threatening to place a bomb at the mosque on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11.

Some opponents, hoping to reverse the Rutherford County Planning Commission's approval of the site plan, filed a lawsuit in September 2010 asking for a temp orary restraining order to prevent construction. Over several days of hearings, plantiffs' attorney Joe Brandon Jr. alleged that mosque members had ties to terrorism and that Islam was not a real religion deserving of constitutional protection. He also presented a theory that local Muslims want to supplant the constitution with Islamic law.

Corlew dismissed those claims and declined to grant the order. But last month he ruled that the county violated Tennessee's Sunshine Law by not providing sufficient notice for the meeting at which the mosque was approved.

County attorneys argued at trial that officials followed their standard procedure for informing the public of that meeting.

Both the Planning Commission and the County Commission voted this month to appeal.