[wvns] Boston Mosque Rises Above
Boston mosque rises above the fray
By Jane Lampman
July 12, 2007
Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0712/p13s03-lire.html?page=1
Long time coming: Chibia Fadil El Kadmiri, originally from Morocco,
was part of the crowd of Muslims who turned out to attend the
minaret-capping ceremony at theIslamic Cultural Center.
Mark Thomson/Special to the Christian Science Monitor
Muslim and Jewish groups drop lengthy lawsuits, and a house of worship
moves forward.
Mosque rally: Imam Basyouny Nehela addresses a crowd of more than
2,000 at the Islamic Cultural Center in Roxbury, Mass.
Mark Thomson/Special to the Christian Science MonitorMore than 2,000
people gathered in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood last month for a
highly symbolic moment – the capping of the minaret on a new mosque. A
joyous occasion, the event sparked greater emotion than usual because
construction of the Islamic Society of Boston's Mosque and Cultural
Center had been stalled for more than two years – and had seemed in
jeopardy. Controversy over allegations that the mosque had ties to
terrorism had mushroomed into lawsuits and poisoned relations among
the city's Jewish and Muslim communities.
The lawsuits have now been settled, thanks in part to interfaith
efforts for more than a year to bring the litigants together. Some in
the Jewish community say, however, that difficult questions still
stand in the way of restoring relations with the Islamic Society of
Boston (ISB). Others see the opportunity for a fresh start to break
down suspicions and distrust through renewed dialogue.
"This is an opportunity to take advantage of.... Being able to resolve
this difficulty and to grow out of a sense of conflict into a more
active, positive conversation has an importance not only for Boston,
but beyond," says David Gordis, president of Hebrew College, in
Newton, Mass.
The conflict reflects fears and insecurities felt since 9/11 by many
Americans who worry about the potential for the kind of threats
Britain is currently facing. For Jews and Muslims, it is even more
challenging.
The success will depend, it seems, on the extent to which those in the
local community dwell on deep concerns associated with the Middle East
situation or focus on building local ties. Boston has a history of
strong Christian-Jewish relations, and post-9/11, the conversations
began to embrace Muslims, including the ISB.
But when the society took steps to build the largest mosque in New
England, some people who see the Muslim presence itself as a threat
and US Muslims as under suspicion mounted a challenge.
Local objections to mosque
Contracting for a property with the Boston Redevelopment Authority in
1999, the ISB got the land at less than market value (as have several
religious entities), with the proviso that it provide certain services
to the local community, such as maintaining a neighborhood park.
But after the 2003 groundbreaking, obstacles appeared. The Boston
Herald and local Fox 25 TV published stories accusing ISB leaders of
links to terrorism. A city resident filed a lawsuit challenging the
discounted land sale as unconstitutional. The David Project (DP), a
right-leaning, pro-Israel advocacy group, began to publicize the
charges and seek public hearings. It later came to light (via
subpoenaed e-mails) that members of the group had worked actively to
instigate the lawsuit and news stories as part of their "strategies to
attack the mosque."
In 2005, the ISB filed a defamation suit against the groups and media
outlets. That led mainstream Jewish organizations to line up with the
David Project and to say the lawsuit made it difficult to carry on any
communication with the ISB.
As tensions mounted, the Interreligious Center on Public Life (ICPL),
a joint venture of Hebrew College and Andover-Newton Theological
School, invited an expert in conflict resolution, the Rev. Raymond
Helmick, S.J., of Boston College, to lead an effort to bridge the divide.
"The ICPL's interest was in trying to head off community damage," says
Father Helmick. "Our task force [which included well-known author
Rabbi Harold Kushner] worked for a full year to urge the parties
toward mediation. The ISB was willing from the start, but the David
Project resisted."
They insisted there was nothing to mediate. "The David Project
rejected absolutely the suggestion there would be any limitation on
their ability to raise questions about the funding and leadership of
the ISB," says Jeffrey Robbins, the group's attorney.
Their accusations of radical leadership rest on past or present ISB
ties to three people. One charge involves a recent trustee, Walid
Fitaihi (who taught at Harvard Medical School and returned to Saudi
Arabia to open a hospital), whose anti-Semitic comments were published
in an Arabic newspaper in 2000. Another involves a man who had been
involved in the ISB in the 1980s and was recently jailed for
participating in a plot to kill a Saudi official.
The third involves Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Qatar, a very prominent
Muslim cleric. A reformist on issues such as support for democracy,
the sheikh holds a controversial stance on suicide bombing. Opposing
it in general, including 9/11 and the London bombings, he supports it
when people are under occupation, such as the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and Iraq. He has been banned from the US since 1999.
The ISB responds that Mr. Qaradawi was an honorary trustee in the
1990s but is not connected to the society today.
The DP also questions the fact that some funding for the new mosque
has come from Saudi Arabia. The ISB, which got a loan from the Islamic
Development Bank, says the bank is a reputable organization that
allows ISB to meet the requirements for interest-free Islamic financing.
When Jewish leaders talked of a complete cutoff of communication with
the ISB, one Jewish organization, the Boston Workmen's Circle (BWC),
picked up the torch.
"Lawsuits can go on for years, and we started looking at what we could
do to keep communication going," says Michael Felsen, BWC president.
They held a forum at which attorneys for both sides made
presentations, and then began seeking backing in the Jewish community
for a public call for mediation.
Meanwhile, a group of young Jews, seeing the challenge against the ISB
as "fear-mongering and Islamophobia," launched a website
(www.supportthemosque.org) to encourage others in the Jewish community
to support the ISB.
At the same time, the ISB was winning in the courts. The suit
challenging the land sale was thrown out in February 2007. Efforts by
DP to get the defamation suit dismissed were rejected.
An apology and an opening
Then the ISB trustee who had made the inflammatory statements in the
Arabic press came to Boston. In mid-April, the BWC hosted a meeting at
which Dr. Fitaihi apologized to Jewish community leaders. "We saw that
meeting as an important event, an opportunity for leadership of both
communities to come together and share views openly and honestly,"
says Mr. Felsen. "He made it clear he was there to heal, and other
Muslim community members there said they were looking for
reconciliation."
With the confluence of events, within a month the attorneys were
talking, and an agreement was reached in late May to end all
litigation: The defamation suit and the appeal of the suit against the
land sale were both dropped.
Both sides claim victory. Mr. Robbins, lawyer for the David Project,
says the ISB settled to avoid having its officers testify under oath
and damaging information becoming public during trial.
"A claim like that cuts both ways, and the David Project had documents
they didn't want to come into our hands," says Albert Farrah Jr.,
ISB's lawyer. "They said they were going to prove my clients had links
to terrorists. I don't think had the defendants truly thought they
could have proven those claims that they would have dropped them."
While the litigation has ended and the construction of the mosque is
again under way, the question now is where the community is headed.
The David Project gives indications of continuing the fight on other
fronts. And some of its very wealthy members provide important
resources for the area's Jewish organizations.
For the mainstream Jewish community, the challenge is how they will
address the concerns some people still hold.
"Our goal is to work with people who repudiate the kind of bigotry
that exists in the extremist world, whether virulent anti-Semitism ...
or anti-Muslim sentiments that characterize all Muslims as terrorists
or sympathizers," says Alan Ronkin, deputy director of the Jewish
Community Relations Council. Yet he still voices qualms about "the
ISB's 'potential' relationship with Sheikh Al-Qaradawi."
Helping Muslims out of insularity
Dr. Gordis of Hebrew College sees Boston as having the opportunity to
become a model for other parts of the country, including helping
Muslims move out of insularity.
"Our role in a world which is so torn and so much at risk is to
encourage the moderate voices among Jews, Christians, and Muslims," he
says. "Suppose there were unhappy things said by some who were leaders
of that mosque. The important thing is to make the rank-and-file
membership and current leadership participants in community
conversations that contribute to an atmosphere of respect for 'the
other.' That's not going to take place by vilification or castigation
or isolation, but only by reaching out to them."
The Islamic Society itself has embraced the opportunity. On June 27,
it hosted an "intercommunity solidarity day" at the new mosque, which
is expected to be completed in six months. Representatives from
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities prayed together for
tolerance and understanding, and planted a "tree of peace." Young Jews
from supportthemosque.org presented a check for money donated via
their website.
"Worship services may be only 50 percent of what this mosque is for,"
says M. Bilal Kaleem, ISB spokesman. "The rest involves building
interfaith relationships. Our biggest hope goes beyond dialogue to
real cooperation on issues of shared interest."
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