MIAMI -- A man fighting the opening of a new mosque in his predominantly black Pompano Beach neighborhood filed a lawsuit Tuesday to try and halt construction, a move derided by Arab leaders as anti-Muslim.

Rodney Wright, who proclaims himself a Christian, claimed the relocation of the Islamic Center of South Florida to a larger mosque on undeveloped land on Northwest 16th Avenue "presents a substantial harm to the well-being, safety and health" of the community.

The lawsuit claimed the leader of the mosque, Imam Hassan Sabri, has repeatedly been associated with others who are tied to terrorist groups including Hamas, al-Qaida and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, though the connections outlined in the filing appear loose and there is no accusation of direct wrongdoing.

Sabri has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing, and neither he nor his mosque have been the target of any publicized investigation.

Larry Klayman, the attorney for Wright, claimed the filing does not amount to an anti-Muslim action. But Joe Kaufman, the head of Americans Against Hate, which calls itself a civil rights organization but has been highly critical of major Muslim groups, worked for Klayman and is identified on his group's Web site as the lawyer's special assistant.

"I'm very much disturbed that in this day and age you'd find people going to such extreme measures to prevent a house of worship from being built in any American city," said Altaf Ali, executive director of the Council of American Islamic Relations, which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. "I look at this as an act of religious intimidation."

Klayman said he was being paid for his work but would not disclose the source of the funding. He maintained that the mosque sacrificed public safety.

"The mosque is radical; the imam is radical," Klayman said. "We believe they will go out and recruit people in the African-American community to do their bidding."

Last year, a coalition of ministers led by the Rev. O'Neal Dozier distributed comic strip booklets about the Islam religion, which they believe "teaches evil and hatred," in opposition to the zoning change that allowed for the Islamic Center to relocate.

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Slideshow: Check Out The Controversial Comic Book

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Dozier, who is black, said he hoped the booklets would "educate the public concerning the Islamic fascism."

Ali responded by called Dozier a "bigot" and "prejudice."

"I think his information and knowledge of Islam is very limited," he said.