NY town OKs all-boys Muslim school in residential nabe but 120 students cant stay overnight
A controversial all-boys Muslim school that sparked massive backlash over plans to house 120 teens next door to a senior living community will no longer be allowed to board its students.The town of Islip’s zoning board on Tuesday reversed a previous decision to allow The United American Muslim Association’s new school in Bay Shore to house the boys in a dormitory on campus — after being grilled by residents for five-straight hours in a July meeting, a spokesperson for the board told The Post. “The Zoning Board of Appeals voted 3-1 to reverse the Building Division’s interpretation and determined that the proposed boarding component… is not a permitted accessory use to the parochial school under the Town’s zoning code,” the board said. This means the all boys, Islamic-education-based school will still be allowed to open on the 13-acre waterfront campus, but its students will have to go home at the end of the day.“The question before the Board is not whether a parochial school is a permitted principal use within the District — [Town code] expressly permits such use,” the board wrote in its decision, released Thursday.“Rather, the Board concludes only that the property owner has not demonstrated that the proposed residential boarding component satisfies the requirements of [Town code] under the facts presented,” the decision explained.Hundreds of locals were in a furor over the proposition, with most residents complaints focused on the potential effects of a large number of noisy teen students moving into a mostly serene area.
The recent meeting grew raucous, with some locals escorted out of the building as others espoused Islamophobic views.“I don’t care what religion the school teaches, it could be Jewish, Catholic, whatever — we just don’t want it — imagine the noise of 120 school children day and night,” said one resident who only identified as Barbara.Despite the protests, several board members indicated at the time that th...