Muslim organization sues Islip Town over ruling that it can't board students at school planned for Bay Shore

A Muslim organization on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Town of Islip, saying it was illegally denied permission to open a boarding school in Bay Shore on a site where a Catholic boarding school operated for decades.

The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Suffolk County, says the Town of Islip’s Zoning Board of Appeals illegally blocked United American Muslim Association from boarding students and staff at the school at the former Montfort Missionaries site at 26 S. Saxon Ave.

The organization can run a day school at the site, town officials have said.

The group paid $5 million to buy the 13-acre property in June after a town official in the Building Division told them they could open a boarding school there, according to the lawsuit, which seeks to overturn the zoning board decision.

The zoning board shot down the housing aspect of the proposal by a 3-1 vote in late September. That followed a public hearing in July where a standing-room-only crowd of 600 people packed an auditorium to oppose the project. Residents cited concerns about increased traffic and what one resident called "the character of the neighborhood."

The Muslim organization contended the project was blocked because of prejudice against their religion.

"For nearly fifty years, students lived, learned and prayed on this property. UAMA seeks to open those doors again," Muhammad Faridi, a Manhattan-based attorney representing the Muslim group, said in a statement Thursday. "The faith of the students may change; the law’s protection must remain constant. The anti-Muslim sentiment expressed at the hearing has no place in zoning matters."

Town of Islip spokeswoman Caroline Smith said the town could not comment on ongoing litigation.

Steven Bertolino, an East Islip-based attorney representing two residents who filed an appeal with the zoning board to reject the boarding school proposal, said he did not  believe anti-Muslim sentiments had anything to do with the case.

"I believe the zoning board of appeals came to the correct conclusion," Bertolino said Thursday. The town staff member who initially approved the project "was incorrect and the zoning board of appeals saw fit to overturn that staff member’s position."

The Monfort Missionaries opened the facility in 1926 as a minor seminary for teenage boys considering the priesthood. It closed as a seminary in 1972, but continued to serve as a headquarters for the religious order, a retreat center and a home for aging priests.

UAMA wants to revive the original use by opening a Muslim boarding school for 120 boys in grades 7 through 12.

Mahmut Salihoglu, president of UAMA’s Dix Hills branch, said in a statement,  "We remain committed to opening the school and creating that opportunity for our students and families, in harmony with the broader Bay Shore community."

The lawsuit cites numerous alleged issues with the town’s decision, including the existence of at least one other boarding school, the Harrow School in Oakdale, operating under the same zoning in the Town of Islip.

The zoning board rejected the boarding component of the project for reasons including that the housing component would take up too much of the property, the board said.

The Montfort Missionaries' boarding operation, which ended in 1972, "developed under a materially different zoning scheme," the panel said in its decision. "The prior operation of a school with residential facilities does not establish that boarding is presently permitted as an accessory use to a parochial school."