“I can’t think of a more enduring thing than a mosque hosting a Jewish congregation,. All of this sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?”
Source/Credit: Queens Chronicle
By Ryan Brady | September 21, 2017
Proposal aims to honor Holliswood mosque; board approves it 29-6
Community Board 8 voted Sept. 13 to co-name a section of 85th Road “Ahmadiyya Way” to honor a Holliswood mosque.
Twenty-nine board members voted yes; six voted no.
Board member Mark Lefkof said that he spoke “to the gentleman who lives in” the only house that shares the affected part of the road adjacent to the Bait-Uz-Zafar Mosque.
“He has no issue regarding [the proposal],” he said.
Marc Haken, also of CB 8, extolled the mosque for its role in the community.
“I’ve been there so many times for interreligious activities, where there were Sikhs, where there were Hindus, where there were Protestants, where there were Catholics, where there with Jews,” he said.
The mosque — whose building used to be a temple — was created to serve Muslims of the religion’s Ahmadiyya movement.
The section of 85th Road to be co-named runs from 188th Street to the house that abuts the mosque’s parking lot.
Haken said that he “scratched his head” pondering the proposal and whether the Holliswood religious center meets the City Council’s procedure and standards for street co-namings after organizations, which require that they be “of particular importance to New York City,” “of enduring or lasting interest to large segments of the city’s population that have undertaken acts of enduring or lasting interest” and “whose importance to the city or whose enduring interest is a result of exemplary acts or achievements that reflect positively on the city.”
The CB 8 member said that he “scratched his head” thinking about whether the co-naming proposal met the standards put forth by the city’s legislative body. But ultimately, he decided to endorse the “Ahmadiyya Way” plan, which needs City Council approval to become official.
“I can’t think of a more enduring thing than a mosque hosting a Jewish congregation,” Haken said. “All of this sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?”
He praised Bait-Uz-Zafar for the food pantries and blood drives it has organized, as well as the interreligious activities it has hosted with Christian denominations, Sikhs, Hindus and Jews.
Haken said that if there were issues about whether the co-naming met the guidelines, they could be addressed later. “If there’s a question, vote for it, please,” he said. “Let the City Council make that decision.”
Despite how easily the board passed the co-naming, a small minority dissented.
While CB 8 member Kevin Forrestal agreed that the mosque has “acted in an exemplary fashion,” he worried about the precedent that an approval vote could set.
“It really would establish, for us, a very low threshold,” Forrestal said.
The board member, who is also the president of the Queens Civic Congress, looked at the guidelines that some other community boards throughout the city have for street co-namings.
“The recommendations talk about citywide recognition,” Forrestal explained. “This is a group that has done good work. There are many other groups, mosques, churches, synagogues that have done good work. There are many organizations that have done interfaith activities.”
Read original post here: USA: Holliswood, NY Community Board approves co-naming part of 85th Road "Ahmadiyya Way"
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