Residents of a community on Long Island’s south shore are angry over plans to convert a former Catholic seminary into an all-boys Muslim boarding school, complete with a mosque.
The building is in a residential neighborhood and locals are concerned about traffic and the prospect of a Muslim call to prayer being broadcast five times a day.
A recent town meeting on the subject lasted for five hours as people lined up to voice their concerns.
The New York Post reports:
Fuming 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.