Justice Department 'statement of interest' says Oyster Bay unfairly restricted Bethpage mosque's request to expand

The Justice Department strongly rebuked the Town of Oyster Bay in a filing Friday in U.S. Eastern District Court, backing owners of a Bethpage mosque who sued the town after alleging officials there created unfair restrictions on their bid to expand the house of worship.

Muslims on Long Island Inc., the organization that owns Masjid Al-Baqi on Central Avenue, in January filed a lawsuit in federal court against Oyster Bay that alleged the town’s code treated religious institutions differently than nonreligious locations in a violation of Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 — a federal land use law.

The 17-page "statement of interest," filed by lawyers in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, said MOLI was likely to succeed in the merits of its case "because, under the recently revised parking code, MOLI is treated less favorably than comparable secular uses such as theaters, libraries, and museums, and the Town cannot and does not show that such unequal treatment is justified."

The Bethpage group for more than six years has attempted to take down two buildings on adjacent properties and create a three-story mosque to better serve its congregation, read the lawsuit filed earlier this year, Newsday reported. 

A local law passed by the Town of Oyster Bay in 2022 while MOLI’s proposal was under review required parking spaces to be based on a house of worship’s total occupancy — not by the number of seats in the building or by its square footage, like in other nonreligious places of assembly.

The change made the parking spots needed for the new mosque jump from 86 to 155. Muslims On Long Island’s proposal had 88 parking spots, according to the lawsuit.

"Zoning regulations that unfairly restrict assemblies by faith-based groups violate federal law," said U.S. Attorney John J. Durham for the Eastern District of New York in a written statement. "Municipalities cannot impose tougher parking or other land use standards on houses of worship than comparable secular assemblies."

The Town of Oyster Bay did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In responding to a request for comment on the lawsuit in January, Town Attorney Frank Scalera said Oyster Bay doesn't comment on the specifics of pending litigation but called the suit's claims "baseless," "unjustified" and an "attempt to divide the community."

Peter Vogel, an attorney representing MOLI, in a statement said the federal government’s statement "underscores the fundamental principle that religious freedom must be protected equally."

Moeen Qureshi, a volunteer at Masjid Al-Baqi, said in a statement that the case "is about fairness and dignity for all people of faith," adding, "We are grateful that the federal government recognizes the injustice we’ve faced and is standing up to ensure that religious freedom is not selectively applied."

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ