Legal Battle Over Newark City Mosque Purchase Decided for Board of Trustees | Media Pyro

The two-year saga involving a Newark Muslim congregation and their fight against the sale of their mosque has not gone down well with protesters. The case was dismissed by a Superior Court judge, who said Khalilah Shabazz, the so-called Mother of the Mosque, had no legal authority to sue the mosque’s board of trustees for bad, even though he prayed there for forty years.

The Branford Mosque, built in the 1980s, is located on the second and third floors of the city’s former Chamber of Commerce building at 20 Branford Place, Newark. In 1982, a Saudi philanthropist donated the building to the congregation and placed it in an irrevocable trust in laws drafted in 2005, Shabazz argued. In 2020, the building was sold to Paramount Assets by the Islamic Society of Essex County, the mosque’s parent organization, a decision made by the board of trustees without consulting members.

However, the court expressed ambivalence about the validity of that 2005 document. Judge Thomas Callahan argued that because ISEC did not take ownership of the building until 2006, it “does not The 2005 Act could create a trust because ISEC did not have their own agenda at that time.”

Meanwhile, while the court battle was going on, ISEC bought a building near 9-13 Hill Street and opened a new church there, saying it was better. the organization’s expenditure on services in the repair of an old building.

“This is a newly renovated building that will allow them to increase the services they provide to the community,” Deanna Koestal, attorney for ISEC, told the court. “They also agreed to use the money they bring into the organization, to use it for the community, not to repair the building.”

In the eyes of many Newarkers, this war was particularly exciting – perhaps because it provoked the “cloak and sword sale” against non-Muslims. Made up of non-Native Newarkers, the board was made up of outsiders who partnered with a wealthy developer to capture a Black community. Their protest continues. Even in the cold, winter months, congregations pray on the sidewalks along Branford Street instead of going to the Hill Street church and admitting it’s fall.

“We’re still praying outside in front of the church,” Shabazz told Jersey Digs. “Like we said, it’s called our church.”

Last year, Deputy Mayor Allison Ladd asked the council to meet with the new owner of the building, Paramount Assets, which is headquartered in the city, but no decisions were made at the meetings.

Shabazz told Jersey Digs that he plans to appeal the decision. “I will not stop until the defendants accept the truth of the sale of the building and set the record straight that the members are still there,” he said.