Feasterville mosque proposal sparks tense zoning hearing

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Hundreds of residents packed the Poquessing Middle School gymnasium in Feasterville for a Lower Southampton Township Zoning hearing on Al-Asr Islamic Community Center’s request to open a mosque on its Buck Road site.

Tuesday night’s hearing was continued from a previous hearing on March 10 at the township administration building because the number of people interested in attending exceeded the venue’s capacity of 75.

Much of the witness testimony for the applicant and board discussion revolved around traffic concerns and dedicated parking spaces for Friday jummah prayer. The applicant said the weekly mandatory congregational prayer would attract between 100-150 people.

On other days, the center said, attendance would range from 5 to 20 people. Quran classes would be held for children one day after school and one day on weekends, with a maximum of 15-20 children in attendance.

Throughout the proceedings, the room was tense.

In one section of the bleachers were members of the area’s growing Uzbek community and other Muslim residents who support a mosque in Feasterville. In another section of the bleachers were residents opposed to the mosque, some of whom cheered and jeered during the proceedings. Township solicitor Thomas Panzer, who ran the hearing, asked people to withhold applause or any other reactions during the proceedings.

At one point, Imam Basheer Bilaal, who also served as a witness in the applicants’ case, requested and received a recess so the Muslim residents in attendance could pray one of the five daily prayers practiced in Islam.

As Muslim members filed out of the gymnasium to pray outside, one woman yelled at them and then enjoined other members of the crowd to sing “God Bless America.” Others booed when the request was granted.

“I felt the level of animosity and hatred in the room, and that was breaking my heart the whole duration there, even when we asked [for] the recess to pray, and it was religious freedom that, luckily, the board approved, but it was so hard,” Bilaal said.

Isaa Abogosh, a Palestinian American who lives less than five minutes from Al-Asr Islamic Community Center, said comments and reactions from some of the attendees were “difficult,” though he credited township officials with maintaining order during the meeting.

“It’s honestly very scary to feel that I live in … a community that I’m not welcomed in,” he said. “When we went to pray, we were kind of yelled at … and that felt very, very, very uncomfortable. It didn’t give the American spirit of the First Amendment.”

Bilaal, the resident imam at the Muslim Society of Delaware Valley, said there is a “dire need to have a space for worship” for Muslim residents in the area.

“It’s very common that our communities encounter some kind of resistance, discrimination, racism, some kind of unwarranted level of hatred against us, or we call it Islamophobia,” he said. “Some deny it, but call it whatever you want. There’s some kind of xenophobia that prevents people from wanting to have Muslims in their community, because they see them as a threat or a harm.”

The Muslim Society of Delaware Valley put forth a zoning request in late 2025 to construct a mosque at 95 James Way in Upper Southampton Township. The organization later withdrew the application in December 2025.

Bilaal said the organization’s founding members were also involved in the effort to establish a mosque in Bensalem Township. After the township denied Bensalem Masjid’s zoning variance request in 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a religious land-use discrimination lawsuit against the township. The suit was later settled in 2017, and the project was allowed to move forward.

For the Uzbek community and other Muslim residents that Al-Asr would serve, having a mosque would be a “huge impact,” Bilaal said.

Abogosh said he would be able to attend prayers more easily around his work schedule.

“There isn’t any local mosque that is close … in the area,” he said. “There’s a lot of Muslims in the area that need … a place to worship and just see other Muslims get together as well.”

Abogosh said having Quran classes for children is also important.

“Just like any other religion, we also, like other religions, like to worship, and like to go into a place where we can be ourselves, really and worship and kind of have that sincerity, and … calmness in our hearts, where we want to worship and just feel kind of in our own area, and that’s in the mosque,” he said.

George Heaney, 78, a Trevose resident, said he attended the meeting because he thinks the community doesn’t “need a mosque there.”

“Every day, people say, ‘Well, there’s really nice Muslims and all,’ but all over the world they’re causing trouble,’” he said. “And we really don’t need it.”

Bilaal said he wants to educate people who don’t understand that Islam is a “religion of peace,” and “create a better understanding.” Muslims have also been “a part of the fabric from day one” in United States history. Bilaal said he thinks those misconceptions came into play Tuesday night.

“Even if we have shortcomings on our end of miscalculating the amount of parking spots or the space that’s appropriate for building a mosque, it shouldn’t be in such a toxic way where there’s so much cheering on, you know, these mishaps or this level of toxic animosity in the space,” he said, noting that he and other Muslim members of the community have considered setting up a table at the meeting to talk to other residents about their faith.

“I would have hoped that people could help us find a space and welcome us and try to assist us in the search that we have, but I guess it’s one of those things that we have to persevere and show forbearance and be patient and see what happens.”

The board set a cutoff for the meeting at 10 p.m., and the hearing will continue at 7 p.m. May 5 in the same location. The applicant is expected to present a parking plan at that time, and public comment will be heard.