New York Church Rejects Property Sale to Muslim Group

The trustees of a New York Catholic church this week rejected the proposed sale of a vacant convent building to a nonprofit Islamic organization for use as a mosque, The New York Times writes.

The move, announced Thursday by the Archdiocese of New York, came after neighbors of St. Margaret Mary Church in Staten Island expressed heated opposition to the sale, raising fears the mosque would be a front for terrorism, and the parish priest, the Rev. Keith Fennessy, withdrew his support for the deal.

The Rev. Fennessy had signed an agreement in May to sell the building to the Muslim American Society. Mahdi Bray, the Islamic organization’s executive director, said it would look elsewhere for a mosque site.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)