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I’m a reporter who covers federal courts for The New York Times, with a focus on cases that land in the Eastern District of New York. In terms of subject matter, my beat is wide-ranging: I have written about drug lords, an “orgasmic meditation” wellness group on trial and a politicized Justice Department.
The variety speaks to why I love court reporting: The legal system touches and involves people from all walks of life, with seemingly disparate issues often colliding in surprising ways. And recently, I covered a case that hit a number of themes.
Masjid Al-Baqi, a small mosque on Long Island, in January sued the Town of Oyster Bay. Since 2018, the mosque in Bethpage has desperately tried to upgrade its fledgling facilities: two one-story buildings converted from fast-food restaurants. The plan was to demolish both and build a modern, three-story mosque in place of one of the old structures.
Yet the town had stonewalled the mosque at every turn, citing public safety concerns, a lack of available parking at the facilities and other issues. That came despite a study commissioned by the town that found the planned mosque expansion would not create public safety issues.
The mosque claimed in its federal lawsuit that the town had violated its congregants’ civil rights by subjecting them to needless bureaucratic hassle, even passing a new parking ordinance that meant the mosque would not be allowed to expand. The case caught my eye earlier this year, when the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division made a filing in the case that supported some of the plaintiffs’ claims.
It seemed as if the mosque and the town had reached an agreement to resolve the suit, with an announcement on Aug. 15 that both parties had settled out of court. But within two weeks, the town abruptly walked away from the agreement. It cited worries over increased congestion. But the mosque said a wave of Islamophobia among residents had caused the town to buckle.
I reached out to the lawyers representing each side, residents opposed to the mosque’s expansion and congregants of the mosque, and reviewed hundreds of pages of court records. I found that the case went beyond a seemingly mundane dispute over parking spots. It played on issues of local governance, opposition to growth and anti-Muslim sentiments that have become a persistent and unpleasant fixture of American civic life.
To be sure, much of the community and the town’s opposition to the mosque was grounded in a belief that its expansion would exacerbate public safety issues at a busy intersection. But in online petitions, letters to public officials and social media posts, residents made clear that they were also concerned about an influx of Muslims to Bethpage.
I was somewhat surprised that those who were against the mosque’s expansion were so open about their opposition, often using language that played on stereotypes or was downright Islamophobic.
One online petitioner said the town had become a toxic waste dump and should be left to the Muslims. One woman I interviewed said she wasn’t racist but had noticed a “big influx” of people whose national origin she couldn’t quite place and who were bringing “down the look of Bethpage.”
I spent a couple of days reporting the story at the mosque. Its buildings, which were around 50 years old, had serious issues with the plumbing and the siding, which was chipping off. I also observed the intersection surrounding the mosque. It was indeed busy, particularly on a Friday afternoon, the busiest time for the mosque. But there was no traffic jam or observable public safety issue.
The mosque’s congregants were crestfallen when they found out that the settlement had been scuttled. They insist they just want a healthy, safe place to have religious meals, wash before prayers and host after-school programming for children. In interviews, they remained optimistic that they will ultimately prevail when the case goes to trial in late October.
Moeen Qureshi, a longtime congregant who joined the suit, said there had been a misunderstanding of the congregants’ goals. They were not aiming to build a mega-mosque, or even to attract more people to pray.
“We just want classrooms for our kids,” Mr. Qureshi told me in an interview.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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