Residents of a community on Long Island’s south shore are objecting to plans to transform a former Catholic seminary into an all-boys Muslim boarding school and mosque.
The structure is in a residential area, and locals are concerned about traffic, the idea of more than a hundred teenage boys in a thickly settled area, and the idea of a Muslim call to prayer being broadcast five times a day.
The New York Post reports:
Long Island residents fume over all-boy, Muslim boarding school in residential neighborhoodFuming Long Island residents are fighting the opening of a Muslim boarding school for boys that’s expected to house 120 teenage students — claiming it will destroy a quiet suburban neighborhood.A group of Bay Shore homeowners claims the proposal for an overnight dorm is illegal under codes for the suburban Saxon Avenue, on a 13-acre waterfront property that housed a Catholic seminary years ago.“The proposed use by the new property owner is far more intensive than what is appropriate for a quiet residential neighborhood,” Kevin Colgan, an Islip resident and leader of the anti-boarding school movement in the neighborhood, known as “Saxon Says No,” said in a statement.“This is about protecting the integrity of our zoning laws — not opposing any individual or organization — zoning laws exist to preserve the character, integrity, and quality of life within our neighborhoods while ensuring that land uses are appropriate for their surroundings,” Colgan said…The United American Muslim Association, a group partly based out of the Suleymaniye mosque in Dix Hills, scooped up the sprawling property from the Roman Catholic Montfort Missionaries for $5 million…Locals speaking at the meeting said they felt the school’s opening would hurt the integrity of the neighborhood, and that their residential area is no place for a school of this scale.Most complaints centered around their belief that a boarding school, regardless of any religious affiliation, shouldn’t be opened in a residential neighborhood as it would cause an increase in noise and create traffic jams, as other residents had unanswered questions regarding a daycare center for small children that would be opening with the proposed school.
Libs of TikTok posted a clip from the town meeting.
Here’s a video report from CBS News in New York:
Featured image via YouTube.
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