Former Catholic School Could Become Islamic School

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According to a Daily Wire report, residents of the hamlet of Bay Shore are raising serious concerns over a plan from the United American Muslim Association to convert the former Catholic school building into an all-boys Islamic boarding school. A neighborhood group calling itself “Saxon Says No” showed up in force to a recent zoning meeting to voice its opposition. The group insists its objection is about zoning and due process, not about religion itself.

Details from News 12 Long Island fill in the history of the site. The United American Muslim Association reached an agreement to buy the 13-acre complex at 26 South Saxon Avenue, a property that once housed a thriving Catholic boarding school. That school closed in the early 1970s, and the building later served as housing for Catholic priests before sitting largely dormant.

The scale of the proposed project has added to residents’ worries. Plans call for 120 male students to live on campus full-time, supported by 20 live-in staff and 10 commuting teachers. That is a significant jump in size and activity for a residential neighborhood built around single-family homes and quiet streets.

Residents Raise Zoning and Precedent Concerns

Neighbors argue the Town of Islip is treating this large, intensive use as automatically allowed under existing zoning, rather than requiring the same special permit process other major developments must go through. They warn that letting this project proceed without full review could set a troubling precedent. Other large, formerly religious properties nearby could face the same fast-tracked treatment in the future.

Town officials have so far declined to weigh in publicly while the application is pending, citing standard policy on land use matters still under review. That silence has left residents to organize on their own, posting yard signs and building an online following to turn out neighbors for public hearings. For many, the fight has become less about any one religion and more about whether local government still answers to the people who live there.

Part of a Larger National Trend

The Bay Shore dispute is not an isolated event. It fits a broader pattern of Islamic institutional growth across the country that Christians should be paying attention to. Pew Research Center projects that the American Muslim population will roughly double by 2050, reaching about 8.1 million people, and that Muslims will surpass Jewish Americans to become the nation’s second-largest religious group by 2040.

That growth is already translating into more mosques, more Islamic schools, and more properties like the one in Bay Shore changing hands to serve Muslim institutions. Immigration and higher birth rates among Muslim American families are the primary drivers behind the trend, according to Pew’s research. None of that growth is illegal or, by itself, evidence of wrongdoing, but it does mean these kinds of zoning and land-use fights are likely to become more common in communities across the country.

A Faith Community Left Without Its Building

Beyond the zoning questions, there’s a deeper story here for Catholics and other Christians watching from afar. According to Sign of the Cross Media, the Muslim organization’s own website states that all of its activities must fully comply with the teachings of the Quran and the example of the Prophet Muhammad. That stands in stark contrast to the building’s original purpose, when it formed young men for the Catholic priesthood and later gave shelter to priests themselves.

It’s worth pausing on what this represents. A building once devoted to forming Catholic clergy, teaching the Gospel, and supporting men who had given their lives to Christ’s Church is now positioned to serve an entirely different faith tradition. That shift didn’t happen through persecution or government seizure. It happened because the Catholic institution that once owned the property no longer had the resources, vocations, or need to keep it.

This should prompt real reflection within Christian communities about stewardship. Scripture reminds believers, “the earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1), and that includes the buildings and institutions raised up to serve His Kingdom. When those institutions decline, whether from fewer vocations, shrinking congregations, or shifting priorities, the properties they once built don’t simply disappear. They pass into other hands, sometimes hands with very different aims.

What Believers Can Take From This

This story isn’t really about one Islamic organization or one Long Island neighborhood. It’s about the long, slow drift many American religious institutions have experienced, and what fills the space they leave behind. Christians who care about that trend have a role to play well before a building goes up for sale.

Supporting healthy local parishes, encouraging vocations, and staying engaged in local zoning and civic decisions are all part of that work. As Million Voices has covered before, religious liberty isn’t defended only in courtrooms. It’s defended in town halls, zoning meetings, and the everyday choices believers make about where to invest their time and support.

Residents in Bay Shore are set to learn the outcome of their zoning fight in the coming weeks. Whatever the town decides, the underlying lesson holds true for Christians everywhere. Faith communities that want to keep their buildings, their institutions, and their influence in the public square must stay active, engaged, and willing to invest in the future rather than simply hoping the past takes care of itself.

Million Voices will continue to equip believers with the tools to stay engaged on religious liberty issues at the local level, where so many of these battles are actually won or lost.

As believers, we are called to pray for our leaders and our nation. Pray for wisdom for those making these decisions, and for safety and dignity for all people affected by them.

That’s where we come in.

Prayer is at the heart of how Million Voices connects faith with civic life. Our Prayer Guide: Pray for Our Government Officials By Name is a free resource designed to help individuals, families, and small groups lift up the men and women who serve in public office—across every level of government and regardless of party.

Rooted in the scriptural call to pray “for kings and all those in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1–2), the guide offers a thoughtful framework for interceding on behalf of our leaders: for wisdom in their decisions, integrity in their conduct, protection for them and their families, and a heart for serving the common good.

Whether you’re looking to deepen your personal prayer life or to gather others in praying for our nation, this guide is a meaningful place to start. Download it here: https://millionvoices.org/mv-prayer-guide-pray-for-government-officials/

We also offer an opportunity to connect faith with action. Through our Write Now Campaign, volunteers send letters to low-propensity voters in key areas, helping inspire them to engage and make their voices heard.

Ready to take the next step? Learn more or sign up to get involved: https://millionvoices.org/volunteer/

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