The group Muslims on Long Island Inc. is getting the expanded mosque in Bethpage it has long sought, against unbending local resistance, along with a payment of nearly $4 million from the Town of Oyster Bay, which had opposed the effort.
The group, also known as MOLI, and the town announced a court settlement this week ending their yearslong standoff over the proposed mosque. The land-use conflict had grown into a federal religious land-use discrimination case, with the Trump Department of Justice siding with MOLI. A potent federal law prohibits zoning restrictions that substantially burden churches and other religious assemblies.
Under the settlement, the town agreed to approve MOLI’s application to build a new and bigger mosque on Bethpage property owned by the group, and to a $3.95 million payment to cover the its attorney fees and other costs. MOLI will remove two existing structures on the property and provide on-site parking and design features to address the town’s asserted traffic concerns.
“We are grateful to put this chapter behind us and to move forward in partnership with our neighbors,” Moeen Qureshi, a named plaintiff, said in a statement announcing the agreement. “Our new mosque will be a place where everyone — regardless of faith — will be welcome. We look forward to hosting the town’s leadership, our neighbors and our friends from across Long Island at our new house of worship.”
In a statement, Oyster Bay officials “expressed satisfaction” the matter had been resolved. MOLI had charged in court papers that town officials had manufactured opposition to its expansion plans — a claim the officials denied — and subjected MOLI to more onerous and rigid land-use requirements than applied to other religious groups.
“This agreement resolves outstanding planning concerns and allows us to move forward in good faith as one community,” Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino said in a statement. “The Town of Oyster Bay has and always will respect the rights of all faith communities.”
The settlement also calls for Oyster Bay to update its town code to resolve charges, also part of the litigation, that certain land-use provisions concerning parking were vague, arbitrary and discriminatory. According to the lawsuit, the town in 2022 demanded that the project significantly increase the number of parking spaces to “nearly double what was required under the standard in place when MOLI first submitted its site plan to the town.”
The federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act is frequently wielded by churches, synagogues and other religious institutions pushing back against local zoning laws they contend “substantially burden” the free exercise of their religion, very often resulting in multimillion-dollar settlement payments made by the local government.
