Bayonne Mosque Scrapped After Anti-Muslim Rhetoric At Planning Meeting In New Jersey

Permission for a long-planned mosque in Bayonne, New Jersey, was denied Monday after a marathon zoning board meeting that was dominated by tensions over anti-Muslim sentiment being expressed by a packed hall of residents.

For more than a year and over the course of five hearings, the Muslims of Bayonne had attempted to get permission to turn a warehouse they purchased for $1 million into a mosque. But after a Zoning Board meeting that lasted more than five hours and drew 500 residents, it was struck down having failed to get the five of the seven votes required, instead getting a narrow 4-3 vote in favor.

Those who voted against the plan cited traffic and parking issues on the dead-end street, reported NJ.com. However, during the open public comment section of the meeting, the subject of religion featured heavily, prompting admonishment from the board’s chairman.

“As a Bayonne resident, I'm embarrassed at some of the comments I heard tonight,” Mark Urban, chairman of the board, said at the meeting’s conclusion.

At one point, a resident took the podium and began quoting what she deemed violent passages from the Quran. Only when Ledia Elraheb yelled, “How many children have died under this so-called religion?” was her tirade finally ended, according to WNYC.

Multiple residents also called on the Muslim group to fully outline their beliefs before being given permission to build the mosque.

“When somebody refuses to tell me what they believe in, I get a little antsy about that,” a local pastor, Joseph Basile said, according to CBS New York.

The hostility was evident even before the meeting began. When mosques started prayers in a corner of the room, opponents to the planned mosque began reciting the Christian Lord’s Prayer in response.

The Muslims of Bayonne had presented a scaled-down version of the mosque in an attempt to get the plan passed and are now considering their legal options. One step could be to seek aid from the federal Department of Justice, however, under the administration of President Donald Trump, the group has admitted that is unlikely to bear any fruit.

“I'd like to think we would get a fair hearing on it, but looking at everything that's going on since [Jeff] Sessions became [Attorney General], I don't know,” Bill Finnerty, the attorney for the mosque applicants told WNYC.

In January, before Trump took office, another group in New Jersey that had waged an unsuccessful five-year battle for the right to build a mosque won a legal victory when a federal judge ruled that it had been discriminated against.

Since the election, there has been a wave of anti-Islam threats and attacks against mosques across America. Last week, a mosque in Jersey City received a threatening letter that called for the beheading of Muslims.