Bellmore mosque faces growing pains

Fahad Quamer, president of the executive committee at Jaam’e Masjid, Bellmore’s only mosque, said last week that the fast-growing congregation is facing the reality of the small space it occupies on Newbridge Road.

“The community is expanding,” Quamer said. “There’s not a lot of space, and we have to do multiple prayers on Friday.”

On Fridays in particular, the parking lot on the side of the building fills up quickly, and worshippers are forced to park on the street. Quamer said that the mosque’s leadership is also often forced to hold multiple prayers, which also compete with the Quran classes for children and adults — and even web development classes — that are held throughout the week.

And although the process of fundraising for an eventual expansion has been slow, in the coming months the mosque’s parking situation, at least, should be solved.

In August 2016, the mosque purchased the lot next door, a former Rite Stop convenience store, for $550,000. The purchase was made possible through fundraising, and $100,000 of qard-e-hasana, or interest-free loans, from mosque members.

The former Rite Stop will be demolished within a month, according to Quamer, and soon after that, blacktop will be laid for a second lot.

“We’re demolishing it to create parking spots, because there is a parking problem,” he said. “That’s about to be done.”

Jaam’e Masjid, which was built in 2001, has worshippers from Bellmore, Merrick and Wantagh, many of whom emigrated from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Egypt, Afghanistan and Syria.

Before the mosque was built, according to Quamer, many local families made the trek to Bethpage or Elmont to worship — not an easy task when Muslims are required to pray five times a day. And now, even with more than 300 people sometimes attending Friday prayers, Quamer said that he is confident that “in the future, there’s just going to be more people coming.”

Estimates from a Pew Research Center study released on Jan. 3 appeared to confirm his prediction. According to the study, there were 3.45 million Muslims living in the U.S. in 2017 — up from an estimated 2.35 million in 2007.

Pew expects the U.S. Muslim population to more than double by 2050, to 8.1 million.

Dr. Mohammad Farhan, the imam at Masjid Hamza in Valley Stream, told an interfaith gathering in West Hempstead last year that Nassau County’s mosques — including his own, and the Long Island Muslim Society in East Meadow — are all looking to expand. “Most of our mosques are in different growing stages,” he added.

As reported in the Herald last week, the East Meadow mosque was recently given the green light by the Town of Hempstead to build a two-story addition and staircase to give female members a place to worship separately — as long as no more than 116 people occupy the building at once.

The decision came three months after an August hearing at which neighboring residents raised concerns about traffic.

Quamer, who explained that Jaam’e Masjid is closely tied to the East Meadow mosque and collaborates with its leadership on some events, said that although parking has also been an issue at his mosque, he believes that Jaam’e Masjid has a “really good relationship with everybody.”

“They’re very accommodating people,” Quamer said. “Sometimes people are parking on the street, but no one’s complained. We just don’t want to be inconveniencing any neighbors, and we want to utilize that property the best we can.”