If the name sounds familiar but you can’t remember why, it’s because the mosque has faced four years of stiff opposition, litigation, and even threats. Despite this, construction of the new mosque is well underway. With your help, the project will be completed as planned.

Donate to the Bayonne Mosque here. Read on for more information about the Bayonne Mosque project and Muppies member fighting to make it a reality.

When Ali Hassan saw Bayonne, New Jersey residents petitioning to deny the building of the Bayonne Mosque, he knew he had to step in.

One could say that he had the perfect pedigree to do so – he was ex-Goldman Sachs, a property owner and co-founder and CEO of Crescent Crypto Asset Management, a cryptocurrency investing platform. But just like the mosque, there’s a lot more to Ali than meets the eye.

For years, Ali was harboring a secret: he was an undocumented immigrant.

His undocumented status meant a host of issues most people never have to think about. Being ejected from his first internship an hour into the job is just one of the events seared into his memory. President Obama’s DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program changed everything for him, however. Since obtaining his Social Security Number, Ali was able to graduate from university, land a job at Goldman Sachs, and eventually open Crescent Crypto. DACA also enabled him to become the official spokesperson for the building of the Bayonne Mosque– a fight that is still continuing.

Ali never thought that a mosque in Bayonne, which neighbors Manhattan and sits right behind the Statue of Liberty, could elicit such strong opposition. Since purchasing the mosque site back in September 2015, organizers have been faced with a myriad of challenges (including someone scrawling “F— Muslims” and “F— Arabs” on the church whose basement served as the original prayer site for Muslims in the city).

Ali has no doubt that President Trump coming to power directly emboldened the opposition. Despite this, the mosque broke ground in 2017, two years after the land was purchased, and construction is currently well underway.

The mosque looks poised to have a happy ending, and with your help, will become a reality, Inshallah. “This isn’t a masjid for the sake of having a masjid, it’s a message,” says Ali, who is matching $25,000 in contributions. “$1 invested in this project is $1 against bigotry.”

Donations can be made here.

For more information, visit the Bayonne Mosque website.