The Brooklyn Ink

By Shlomo Friedman

Every Friday night, Ham Ood Suliman, 18, drives the four miles from his apartment building on Avenue Z and East 28th Street in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn to Bath Avenue to attend prayers at the Muslim American Society’s mosque.

On a good day, with little traffic, the trip can take 12 minutes; on a bad day about 20. Suliman and other Muslims in Sheepshead Bay have to travel to Bath Beach for prayers because there is no mosque in their neighborhood.

That’s an inconvenience Suliman and his local coreligionists had hoped would change with the planned construction of a mosque in Sheepshead Bay by the society at 2812 and 2814 Voorhies Ave., an 8,930-square-foot lot, a five-minute walk from  Mr. Suliman’s apartment.

While Ham Suliman sees the mosque as an expression of “religious freedom,” other residents here are openly hostile to the idea, determined to halt its construction, voicing concerns with traffic and links of Islam and terrorism.

Ludomila Feygina and her husband, both retirees, have lived in one of the neat, attached brick homes opposite 2812 Voorhies for more than 17 years and cite their concerns over the proposed mosque across the street.  Feygina said she felt that the peace of the neighborhood would be shattered by a mosque issuing the call to prayer five times a day. “Can’t squeeze so many people into that small place,” she added.  “There is also no parking.”

Private homes across from mosque site ( Shlomo Friedman / The Brooklyn Ink )

Sheepshead Bay is only one of several flashpoints across New York City and the nation where Muslims attempting to build mosques are running into intense opposition from local residents. In Staten Island, church trustees cancelled a sale of a former convent to the Muslim American Society after fierce protests by local residents.  The proposed mosque a block away from Ground Zero has also encountered resistance from New Yorkers.  According to a Quinnipiac poll, 52 percent of New Yorkers were opposed to the construction of a mosque in the shadow of the Freedom Tower.  Conservatives Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin have also weighed in against the mosque near Ground Zero.

The Feyginas don’t believe there has been an influx of Muslims into their neighborhood; they are worried that the mosque’s worshippers will arrive by car, contributing more traffic to the already congested streets in the area.  Voorhies runs parallel to the Belt Parkway and is used by motorists who are trying to avoid the parkway’s traffic snarls.  Adding to the traffic woes is P.S. 52, an elementary school less than a block away from the site.  The street in front of the school is lined with double-parked cars during arrival and dismissal times as well as when the school holds events.

However, a Brooklyn phenomenon, with Sheepshead Bay no exception, is that some of its neighborhoods’ demographics change rapidly.  Brooklyn neighborhoods with low-end housing stock churn, with the newest immigrants occupying walk-up or older buildings before moving on to private homes or more upscale housing.  There may be no Muslims on the Feyginas’ block, but according to Suliman, most of the residents in his apartment building on Avenue Z, are Muslim.  And only a few blocks west of the site, past Batchelder Street, women dressed in hijabs are not an uncommon sight.

Sheepshead Bay has a large Russian-Jewish immigrant population, and it’s the juxtaposition of that group with the newer Muslim immigrants that adds to the volatility of the dispute.   Russian Jews immigrated to Israel by the hundreds of thousands during the late 1970s, and 1980s, to escape persecution from  the Soviet Regime. Some Sheepshead Bay Russian Jews who have friends and relatives living in Israel view the proposed mosque through the context of the Middle East cauldron, associating Muslims with terrorism and suicide bombers.

In this culture battle, the Russian-immigrant Jewish population here has received an unlikely boost from the head of the Brooklyn Tea Party, Mr. John Press.  Press said he is lobbying state, federal and local officials to halt construction until the Muslim American Society identifies the source of the mosque’s funding.   “This is a wake-up call,” he said.  “Not all religions are the same.  Islam is dedicated to overthrowing democracy and putting in place a theocracy. “

In a letter to State Assembly member Steven Cymbrowitz, (D-Sheepshead Bay), Press quoted the Anti-Defamation League position that the Muslim American Society “has a troubling history of associations with radical organizations and individuals that promote terrorism, anti-Semitism and reject Israel’s right to exist.”   Mr. Press urged the assembly member to consider that “having an organization that preaches hate against Jews move into the neighborhood would greatly disrupt the neighborhood character and quality of life for the current residents.”

Lana Safah, a spokesperson for the society, denied that the organization has any ties to terrorism.  “We are a non-profit legally recognized 501(c)3, she said.  “We are not on any government terror lists.  We have continually denounced any acts of terrorism committed by any individual, group or government.  The allegations tying us to foreign entities and negative actions are quite a stretch and completely unfounded.”

But other residents have what they feel are legitimate concerns that have nothing to do with intolerance or a deep-seated fear of Islam.  Alex Tenenbaum, head of the Bay People, an organization formed to fight mosque, said he would equally oppose the construction of a church or synagogue on the lot.  “It’s a small lot,” he said. If Mr. Allawi, [the current owner of the site], would move into the block with his family, I would welcome him and treat him as a neighbor.  They propose to use the facility for 100 families. I just don’t want 500 people congregating in a very small area next to my backyard.”

Safah conceded that parking and traffic were legitimate concerns, saying, “We are more than willing to sit with community members to reach a resolution that satisfies both parties.”

Houses of worship have wide latitude under New York City zoning laws and may be built on any residential street without any special zoning permits due to the legal status of “as-of-right.” However, “as-of-right” still requires a house of worship to conform to zoning laws for the block of the proposed site.  Some mosque opponents hope it will impede its construction.

According to documents filed with the New York City Department of Buildings, 2812 and 2814 Voorhies are zoned as R4, a designation that makes the lot usable for general residential use.  The combined lots are 8,930-square-feet, but all construction in that zone would have to conform to R4,  requiring every structure to have 15 feet of frontage, 8 feet on the sides and 30 feet in the rear.  That specification would reduce the mosque’s footprint down to 4,500-square-feet, a small enough size, mosque challengers believe, that would compel the Society to abandon the project.

Although the New York City Department of Buildings has rejected the mosque-planners’ initial design, Ibrahim Anse, the architect for the mosque, said that it was due to a technicality and the mosque conforms to all zoning regulations.

Suliman thought the claims of traffic congestion and linking the mosque to terrorism were smokescreens for intolerance.  The opponents should be “ashamed of themselves,” he said.  “This is what America is all about.”