'They Feel Sad This Happened To Us': Spike In Donations After Hate Graffiti At Site Of Future LI Mosque

SHIRLEY, NY — The Islaamic Center of Mastic and Shirley has seen an increase in donations since a vandal scrawled hateful graffiti at the site of its new location, Imam Mehdad Islam told Patch.

People have been reaching out to the congregation since the hateful graffiti was found at the site several weeks ago on Aug. 14. The center's banner announcing construction that was hanging on a chain-link fence on Tudor Road was vandalized with the words, "F--- Islam."

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime by Suffolk police.

Once complete, the site will give way to a mosque, community center, and parking lot. The two-story building will include a prayer hall, two libraries, a podcast studio, an NBA-style basketball court, and a food pantry for the congregation's mission in the basement.

People of the Jewish and Christian communities from the surrounding area emailed the congregation after they saw the news of the graffiti, and contributed to the center's campaign, according to Islam.

It's "because they feel sad that this had happened to us, and they just want to show support."

"They financially contributed to another faith," he added.

So far, the congregation has raised $137,000 toward its goal of $1 million for phase three of the project, according to the center's website.

The interesting part of the planned center is that it is a charitable project, and it's not about how fast the congregation can construct it, it's how fast they can fundraise for it, according to Islam.

So far, $3.2 million has been raised, and $1.3 has been used toward acquiring the property. About $2 million is being dedicated to building a steel structure, which will be erected within the month.

"We'll have steel structure erected within a month; you'll see it," Islam said, adding that after the congregation finishes its first two campaigns of fundraising they will "hopefully" take a break from November till spring of next year.

At that time, then the plan would be to raise another million/million and a half which can get close to the finishing aspects of the building, which are the mechanicals, the windows, and all the other essential components to the building.

It would then be another year to complete another capital raise of a million/million and a half to complete the finishing of the bathrooms, the tiles, the carpets, and the lighting fixtures.

"So, if we are able to successfully raise one and a half million dollars over the course of the next two years, each year, one and a half, which is 3 million in total, we should be able to deliver this entire mosque within two years from today," Islam said. "But that's a very big if or contingency. If we're not able to raise in that particular manner, then depending on how much funds we have, we progress accordingly."

Islam is “pretty confident” of that based on his fundraising track record of outreach to people in crowdfunding, he says.

"We basically go on pages like GoFundMe, and we put it up online, and people from all over the island, not just Shirley, contribute towards it anywhere from $1 to even hundreds of thousands of dollars locally," he said. "Or different professionals — business people across the island — or across the state, or across the country, go online and just donate."

"We're definitely moving very fast compared to other mosques that were built from scratch, from the ground up," he said. "They took a lot longer. Like some of them took more than one and a half decades, like 15 years."

Some nearby mosques included Medford, Melville, and Dix Hills.

"These were ground-up structures," Islam said. "They all took easily 10 to 15 years."

None of these mosques are government-funded, or by any particular organization, national, or international, according to Islam.

"None of us are that attractive for people from outside to fund for whatever reason that is, we all operate very locally and collect from the local people that work here in the 7 -Elevens, and the gas stations, and the hospitals, and whatever else," he said. "It's all local crowdfunding fundraising."

That's why it takes so long if there isn't a good strategy of reaching beyond the zip code, according to Islam.

"Then it's going take you a long time," he said, adding that he has been helped by his background in computer science and skill at social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, which pushes the campaign out "to more people."