During the 11 years that Masjid al-Baqi, a mosque on Central Avenue in Bethpage, has provided religious services for area Muslims, there have been some tensions with community members: a few neighbors have complained about the cars that spill onto local streets during Friday services and religious holidays and, in late 2001, mosque leaders say that a drunken resident smashed some of the building’s windows with a baseball bat and damaged cars in the parking lot.
In general, however, interactions with the community have been more positive than negative, according to Syed Quadri, the secretary of Masjid al-Baqi. In over a decade, the mosque – despite never acquiring a valid occupancy certificate – has never had any problems with the Town of Oyster Bay, he says.
But that all changed at the start of Ramadan this year, when town officials closed the mosque, citing building code violations.
The two sides disagree over when exactly the mosque was shuttered: the town says it issued a July 29 summons; mosque leaders say they were turned away on August 10, the beginning of Ramadan. But both sides agree that the building inspection came about as a result of more than 100 calls or emails to the town from residents complaining about a second Bethpage mosque that is opening nearby. Some of those residents called for an investigation into Masjid al-Baqi.
The opposition to the new Bethpage mosque, and the ensuing backlash against the existing one on Central Avenue, can be traced back to a mass email that circulated before the closure, according to Quadri, who received a copy of the email from a congregant.
In the email, a resident identified as “Peter”, tries to rally residents against the new mosque:
This is not a Muslim neighborhood; we have no Muslim congregation in Bethpage. We do not want people being bused in from other communities. If you read the articles attached, many of these organizations are on the FBI watch lists. I DO NOT WANT THIS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD. THEY NEED TO GO ELSE WHERE. THIS IS THE MESSAGE WE NEED TO SEND.
The email included contact information for public officials and references to other mosque opposition efforts in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and at the much-discussed Park51 site, near Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan.
That email – amid the Park51 debate and the accompanying wave anti-Islamic discourse – played a major role in the shutdown, according to Quadri.
“That’s the only reason that influenced their decision,” Quadri said. “We’ve been there 11 plus years, an inspector has come to the property … you can’t say that the town didn’t know about the mosque being there before the email came out.”