Imam still looking for a new home for mosque

IRVINGTON, NJ — Imam W. Deen Shareef of Masjid Waarith ud Deen in Newark operated the Waris Cultural Center out of the building at 62 Howard St. in the South Ward for years, thanks to support from D. Bilal Beasley, a fellow Muslim and former Irvington Municipal Council president. Beasley also served as an Essex County freeholder and founded the Team Irvington social and political organization.

Shortly before Beasley’s death in 2015, Deen closed the Waris Center, which had been the site of many Team Irvington’s annual events. Since then, the mosque has been operating at 557 Clinton Ave. in Newark while awaiting a more permanent home.

Shareef believed a new home had been found in Orange at an abandoned residence at 339 Heywood Ave., which had last been used as group home facility. But on Monday, Oct. 23, the Orange Zoning Board of Adjustment voted 4-3 to deny the mosque’s application for a variance to purchase the building to convert it to a house of worship.

Orange Zoning Board Chairwoman Murphy Wilson and members Mary Reed-Learmont, Gerard Schubert and Dennis Motley voted against the mosque’s application. Board members Eddie Grubbs, Joanne Ware and Kenneth Black voted in favor of it.

“It’s disappointing, but God knows best and, if this not for us, then God has something better for us,” said Shareef on Monday, Oct. 23. “We’re still going to look at what our options are, what our alternatives are. We came close. There was a vote of four against and three approved. If we could have just had one more vote in approval of it, then it would have happened.”

Shareef said being disappointed doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the mosque’s effort to find a new home in Orange or some other municipality.

“We have to hold faith that God has something in store for us, in terms of a new home for Masjid Waarith ud Deen, and we’re going to continue to look,” he said. “Yes, absolutely; we would be open to alternate sites that would be in Orange. If there is a site that has the promise and, at the same time, the opportunity for us to grow and establish our community in Orange, we would love to have an opportunity to do that.”

Murphy said the board’s vote against Shareef’s application was nothing personal and the fact that the property they wanted to buy had previously served as a group home did not justify its conversion into a house of worship.

“Like other group homes, they could reside there and they did not have to go before a zoning or a planning board. It did not require any kind of approval; they could just set up shop there. That’s what I mean when I said that it ended up being forced on the neighborhood and the neighborhood didn’t like it,” said Wilson on Monday, Oct. 23. “He’s very welcome, if it’s in an appropriate zone. If they want to locate in an appropriate zone where that function is allowed, that’s terrific. It sounds like they have wonderful programs and all of that; it just doesn’t belong in a Double A Single Family Suburban Residential Zone.”

Wilson said there are plenty of other sites in Orange that could be purchased and converted in areas properly zoned and approved. She even suggested an available site on North Center Street, just off of Main Street, that seems suited for what Shareef wants.

Shareef thanked Wilson for her suggestion and said he would consider it. However, he was disappointed by the outcome of the vote, even after more than a dozen supporters tried to convince board members to approve the variance application.

Shareef said there are very simple reasons why his mosque wanted to relocate to Orange, specifically to the Heywood Avenue site.

“It’s in the community. Our vision for the masjid is to be integral to a community. To be a part of a community that we are working directly with the neighbors to enhance the community and grow the spirit of development and love that should exist between neighbors. That’s what we want. And having a school that is right next to the masjid would have been a tremendous gift for us, to make a contribution to the school and the nursing home right around the corner.

Former Zoning Board Chairwoman Janice Morrell said at the meeting that finding an alternate site for the proposed mosque is probably the best solution to Shareef’s search for a new spiritual home in Orange.

“My first comment was it’s going to exacerbate the traffic situation in that area and it’s horrendous. Anytime you’re near a church or a school you always do a traffic study,” Morrell said.

Shareef and his legal counsel asked for delay in a vote at the meeting, in order to give the mosque time to do a traffic study but the request was denied. But he said he wasn’t going to let that get him down.

“Even the presentation, there were things that we had an opportunity to educate people about our faith,” said Shareef, “which, again, we’re hoping to do, not just in a situation like this. We’re hoping to establish an institution where people can learn about who we are and what Al Islam is all about.”

  Imam W. Deen Shareef, Janice Morrell, Murphy Wilson