Historic Buffalo Church Torches Twice In Four Days Following Sale To Islamic Group

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A 140-year-old Catholic church in Buffalo has been deliberately set on fire for the second time in four days, the third blaze to hit the site this year. Investigators confirmed arson.

The property was sold years earlier by the Diocese of Buffalo to a company affiliated with the Downtown Islamic Center, which planned to turn the historic complex into a mosque.

Christian heritage keeps vanishing while officials scramble over "securing" the site they already allowed to fall into the wrong hands.

The former St. Ann's Church and Shrine at 651 Broadway, built in 1886, suffered a fire around 5:45pm on Tuesday, July 21. Buffalo Fire Department crews contained it. Officials ruled the cause arson. It came just four days after a three-alarm blaze on Friday, July 17, that began in the rear of the structure.

In January, a four-alarm fire had already gutted the adjacent former school building, causing an estimated $600,000 in damage.

Here we go again...a 140-year-old church in Buffalo, New York has been torched twice in 4 days by arson. It's almost like they're erasing Christian culture, one historic flame at a time... pic.twitter.com/Y1QIadijvZ

— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) July 23, 2026

The central fact is straightforward. In November 2022 the Diocese of Buffalo sold the entire complex - church, school, and convent - for $250,000 to Buffalo Crescent Holdings, Inc. The buyer is affiliated with the Downtown Islamic Center.

The stated plan was to convert the property into a downtown Islamic center. The building had stood vacant and deteriorating for years after parish activities ended in 2013. Investigations continue. At this time, no public link to the owners has been reported.

The former St. Ann's Church complex (651 Broadway, Buffalo) was sold in Nov 2022 by the Diocese of Buffalo to Buffalo Crescent Holdings, Inc. for $250,000. The buyer, affiliated with the Downtown Islamic Center, planned to convert it into an Islamic center.

The 1886 building has...

— Grok (@grok) July 22, 2026

Local officials are now expressing frustration at the predictable result. Buffalo Common Council Member and Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope said she had spoken with the administration that same afternoon about securing the site.

"I literally just had a conversation this afternoon with a member of the administration asking what are we going to do about it and stressing that something has to be done over there to secure it, and then said it's probably going to be set on fire again, but I just didn't think it would happen today," she stated.

She called the repeated fires "disheartening" for nearby homeowners already dealing with smoke and instability. "I know it's been said that it was arson, which is to be expected."

Bernice Radle, executive director at Preservation Buffalo Niagara, was blunt: "The St. Ann's property owners are unresponsive and refuse to secure the building. Preservation Buffalo Niagara calls on the City of Buffalo to pull out all the stops to wrestle this landmark church from its negligent absentee owner. Enough is enough!"

Mayor Sean Ryan's office said the administration is "actively exploring legal options to compel the owner to fulfill the responsibility to properly maintain and secure the building."

The Department of Permits and Inspections will continue visits. Earlier this year, after the school fire, the mayor had already stated that taxpayers would not cover demolition costs estimated at $2 million. The owners have indicated they lack funds for upkeep while still aiming to develop the property as a community center for Buffalo's Bengali community.

This fits a sustained pattern of historic Christian churches burning across the West, often with causes left vague, suspects uncaught, and preservation efforts blocked.

In New York City itself, the 1863 South Bushwick Reformed Church in Brooklyn was gutted by confirmed arson in June. The FDNY ruled it intentional, and a person of interest was seen fleeing.

Pastor James E. Steward II said the loss struck generations: "It was more than just a building. It's lives and generations of lives that have been touched."

The congregation put forward a restoration plan based on an independent engineer's assessment. The New York City Department of Buildings rejected it. Demolition was ordered.

Just months earlier, a 138-year-old church in Astoria, Queens, suffered a five-alarm blaze whose cause was listed as "unknown." Rebuild proposals were rejected. The structure was demolished within weeks.

The same template appears across the border and overseas. In Canada, arsons against churches more than doubled after 2021. A Macdonald-Laurier Institute report found fewer than 4 percent of cases resulted in charges. Over 100 churches have been burned or vandalized since then, including the 1893 church in Saint-Romain, Quebec, confirmed as arson in April. Officials treat most as isolated or unresolved.

In France, nearly 50 fires or arson attempts struck churches and Christian sites in a single recent year - a sharp rise. A Christian religious building disappears every two weeks through fire, collapse, or deliberate damage.

In June a 17th-century chapel in Brittany lost most of its roof. The same day a historic cloister attached to a cathedral in Condom suffered heavy damage to its roofing and archives.

Earlier the Église Saint-Cyriaque in Montenach was gutted. Authorities routinely cite vegetation, wind, or accident. The cumulative effect is the steady erasure of Christian landmarks.

In the United Kingdom the contrast is sharper. A historic London church, the Kings Hall Methodist Church in Southall, burned to the ground in February amid near-total government silence.

Churches face more than ten crimes every day. Figures show hundreds of attacks, including arson, over recent years.

Yet when a security incident occurred at a Manchester mosque during Ramadan, Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed outrage, thanked emergency services, and announced tens of millions in taxpayer funding for mosque and Muslim community security. No equivalent urgency followed the church fires.

The pattern is consistent from Brooklyn to Buffalo to Quebec to Brittany to London. Historic churches burn. Causes are ruled arson or left "under investigation." Suspects are rarely identified. Preservation plans are rejected. Demolition follows.

Selective official outrage appears only when other sites are involved. Christian heritage is treated as expendable while demographic and cultural shifts accelerate under open-border policies that prioritize new arrivals over the continuity of the civilization that built these landmarks.

The 1886 structure in Buffalo still stands, damaged but not yet leveled. Investigations continue. The owners remain unresponsive on security. Local residents live with the repeated smoke and uncertainty. Across the West the same quiet attrition continues - one historic flame at a time.

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