| The Islamic Association of Long Island | |
|---|---|
| Location | 10 Park Hill Drive, Selden, New York |
| Established | 1974 |
| Leadership | Spokesperson: Mayyer Imam, President |
| Architectural information | |
|
|
|
| Website: Official website | |
The Islamic Association of Long Island (also known as the Selden Masjid) is a mosque at 10 Park Hill Drive in Selden, New York, eastern Long Island, 65 miles east of New York City.[1][2] It was founded in 1974 and is oldest chartered mosque on Long Island.[3][4]
Contents |
Most worshipers are from Pakistan.[5][6] The mosque is in a white wooden building that was converted from a Fundamental Bible Believing Church, and draws about 400 people to Friday prayers.[5][7] It offers prayers five times daily, Saturday Islamic School, Sunday School, and summer school.[4]
In April 2009, the mosque's live-in janitor since 2001, Niamatullah Ibrahim, allegedly sexually attacked a 13-year-old boy inside the mosque, said Suffolk County Police.[8] The boy was at the mosque for instructional classes, and "the assailant was a fairly large man who basically took this young boy by the hand and forced him into a private room, where he subjected him to sexual contact," said Detective Sgt. Michael Fitzharris.[8] Ibrahim was charged with first-degree sexual abuse and third-degree aggravated sexual abuse following a one-month investigation.[8] He pleaded not guilty in Suffolk County First District Court in Central Islip, and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail.[8][9][10]
Nayyer Imam, a pharmacist who is president of the Islamic Association of Long Island, which operates the mosque, said: "I'm in shock. I don't know what to really say. It is very disturbing news."[8] He said Ibrahim traveled once a year to Pakistan to visit his wife and young children.[8] Imam said the mosque would hire counselors to interview children and parents to check for other possible victims.[8]
Bryant Neal Vinas (also known as Ibrahim, Bashir al-Ameriki, and Ben Yameen al-Kanadeeis) is an American who converted to Islam in 2004. He attended the mosque regularly from approximately 2004/05 until 2007, when he left for Pakistan.[11][12][13][14] In Pakistan, he became an al-Qaeda member.[13] He was arrested and pleaded guilty in January 2009 to participating in and supporting al-Qaeda plots, including volunteering detailed information about the operation of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) system to a senior al-Qaeda leader, to help plan a bomb attack on an LIRR commuter train in New York's Penn Station.[13][15]
Mosque president Imam remembered Vinas as "very nice and always smiling, innocent".[5] Imam said he talked regularly to FBI and Homeland Security officials, and said: "I keep an eye like a hawk on this place".[5] On the other hand, a former FBI counter-terrorism official said "there could be a person in the mosque who has some radical thoughts and ideas who the imam knows nothing about," and that suspected extremists had in fact been identified at the mosque.[5]