Hillside Islamic Center officials seek Muslim cemetery at Bellport site

Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan has spent years looking for a place where Long Island Muslims can bury their dead.

That search led Bhuiyan from New Hyde Park, where he is chairman of the Hillside Islamic Center mosque, to a bucolic country road in Bellport, about 80 minutes away by car.

Mosque officials are seeking Brookhaven Town and Suffolk County approvals to build a cemetery that could hold up to 12,000 plots on a 13.78-acre parcel on Beaver Dam Road. The area is occupied by homes, industrial plants and a sand mining operation.

If approved, the cemetery would be the first on Long Island — and one of the few in New York State — reserved exclusively for Muslim burials, Bhuiyan said.

“There’s no land available in Nassau," Bhuiyan said in a phone interview, adding some members of the New Hyde Park mosque go as far away as New Jersey and upstate New York to bury loved ones. 

“They have a two- [or] three-hour drive," he said. "It’s really terrible.”

Struggle to find burial grounds

Long Island Muslims have said they have struggled to find burial grounds that cater to the needs of their faith, which requires that the deceased be interred as quickly as possible on the day of death. The Muslim section of a Mount Sinai cemetery is running out of plots, Newsday has reported. 

New York's only state-regulated Muslim cemetery is in upstate Port Jervis, more than three hours from Brookhaven, Mercedes Padilla, a spokesperson for the state Department of State, said in an email. That department regulates cemeteries except for those run by private religious organizations, she said, adding there may be Muslim cemeteries that are not regulated by the state.

Brookhaven officials last year had heard a separate proposal for a Muslim cemetery to be located at a shuttered East Moriches airport. That proposal, which awaits town approvals, has since been altered to be open to people of all faiths, Newsday previously reported.

The New Hyde Park mosque is seeking a special permit for the cemetery from the Brookhaven Town Board, acting as the planning board. The graveyard also must be approved by the Suffolk County Legislature.

Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico said the town board plans to vote on the special permit on May 14, two days after the legislature is expected to act. 

County Executive Edward P. Romaine's spokesman, Michael Martino, did not respond to a request for comment. County Legis. Dominick Thorne (R-Patchogue), who represents Bellport and has sponsored a bill approving the cemetery, did not return messages seeking comment.

Hillside Islamic Center and the Town of North Hempstead reached a settlement last month paving the way for the mosque's expansion in New Hyde Park. The mosque had sued North Hempstead in federal court after the town had rejected the expansion plan in January 2024. 

During an April 30 public hearing at Brookhaven Town Hall, Bhuiyan, mosque attorney John Scott Prudenti and architect Charles Southard told the town board the cemetery would have a prayer chapel seating up to about 100 people, a storage shed and parking for about 42 vehicles.

Bodies would be washed and wrapped in cloth in accordance with Muslim burial traditions before being brought to the cemetery, mosque representatives said. 

Bhuiyan said the town would make history by approving the graveyard.

“Muslims [have] been living here in the United States for centuries," he said. "First time ever, God willing, Muslims will have their own cemetery ... where they can bury their families and loved ones.”

Residents split

Residents speaking at the hearing were split, with supporters and opponents debating its impact on the local environment.

Some residents said drinking water wells could be contaminated by embalming fluids or decomposing bodies. Cemeteries are a "vast source of contaminants ... that will wind up in our groundwater and in our wells," said Anthony Petillo, of Bellport. 

Southard said Muslims do not use fluids to embalm bodies. He added bodies would be buried in wooden coffins or concrete enclosures.

Supporters, including members of the Greater Bellport Coalition civic group, agreed that Muslims need their own burial ground and downplayed the possible environmental impact.

Regina Crawford, a member of the civic group, said she'd rather have the cemetery than another industrial site.

"When there's an empty lot in Brookhaven, it becomes heavy industrial," Crawford told town board members. "Cemeteries are quiet."

Jason Neal, 50, of Bellport, said any groundwater contamination likely would come from nearby asphalt and concrete manufacturing plants.

"They're probably not coming from people who are going to be buried in the ground," Neal said. "They will be the quietest neighbors you will ever have."