Excerpt:
The board of trustees of a Staten Island Catholic Church have rejected the controversial sale of a church building to a Muslim group looking to open a mosque.
The collapse of the deal - which would have transferred the vacant convent of St. Margaret Mary Church to the Muslim American Society for $750,000 - came amid a national controversy over efforts to construct a mosque near Ground Zero.
The sale was almost a done deal, until word that the Rev. Keith Fennessy had quietly signed off on it became public, angering community members.