Mamdani’s New York Officials Moved Quickly to Demolish a Historic Church Burned in an Arson Attack

Articles | July 16, 2026 | by Catholics for Catholics

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The pastor said knowing it was intentional brings an added layer of grief to himself and the congregation. 

By Catholics for Catholics

For over a century, the South Bushwick Reformed Church was part of Brooklyn’s landscape, a place of worship and part of the congregation’s everyday life, including weddings.

But now, after a fire that was intentionally set, according to the Fire Department of New York, City officials under Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim mayor of Gotham, moved quickly to start the demolition of the historic church. The congregation’s cries be damned.

According to a story by the Daily Wire, after flames engulfed the South Bushwick Reformed Church, an active congregation, on June 19, church engineers said that the building required only a partial demolition, but the NYC Department of Buildings lobbied for a complete demolition, initially slating it for August. Now, the Department of Buildings, headed by Ahmed Tigani — a practicing Muslim — is demolishing the historic building this week, according to Brownstoner.

A Zoom meeting held on Monday, which included representatives from the Department of Buildings, the church, and others, City officials said the demolition would start this week. Authorities have maintained that the church’s engineers never provided a plan to “safely stabilize the structure” that would permit a partial demolition instead of a full teardown.

Dina Alfano of the Bushwick Historic Preservation Association, who has worked with the church to save the historic landmark, said the new deadline was impossible to meet.

🇺🇸Arson fires have hit multiple NYC churches in recent weeks, including a 174-year-old Brooklyn church that’s now set to be demolished in August after city officials in the Department of Buildings, headed by Ahmed Tigani, rejected plans to save it.

Critics are blasting Mamdani…

— NewsForce (@Newsforce) July 14, 2026

“That left us basically less than half a day to try to get a team in there to get them the remaining information they needed,” Alfano said. “The long and the short of it is that it just wasn’t possible with the time constraints to get them what they wanted.”

In a statement on Tuesday, the church’s pastor, James Steward, lamented: “It is with extremely heavy hearts that the South Bushwick Church reports that, despite its best efforts, we have been informed that demolition of the remaining structures at 855 Bushwick will commence tomorrow.”