[wvns] David Project Spread Islamophobic Propaganda
Muslims involved in mosque plot
The Muslim Observer
http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=995
Boston--May 12, 2007--New evidence has surfaced, which indicates
efforts to enlist professional critics of Islam, including Muslim
collaborators, in the conspiracy against the Islamic Society of Boston
(ISB). Attorney Jack Fainberg, who previously helped construct a legal
case against their mosque, volunteered discovery materials to the ISB.
The ISB shared with TMO a June 1, 2004 opposition email, which refers
to an unnamed "pro-Jewish Muslim ally in Boston," who used Roxbury
Community College connections to help conspirators investigate parking
infractions the mosque might have committed inadvertently, that could
be used in a legal attack.
Khaleel Mohammed, an academic who advocates "Islamic reform" to right
wing audiences was also mentioned in the anti-mosque correspondence.
An October 1993 Boston Herald article linked a quotation from Mohammed
about mosque financing with two succeeding anonymous quotations so
that he would appear to accuse the ISB of connections to
"fundamentalist Islamist politics."
ISB director Jessica Masse claims to be in possession of emails in
which Mohammed discusses with professional Israel advocates the
allegedly "Wahhabi" content of library materials at the ISB. TMO asked
Mohammed to comment about his involvement with the anti-mosque group.
"I am sad to find out that organizations are now using government
funds to combat the building of mosques." Mohammed began.
"I have imparted no `secret' information to anyone…I don't know any of
the people in the Boston Mosque. I would at most say that if they are
into radical Islam, I would be against their building a mosque."
Mohammed informed TMO that he verified "some translations [of
statements by] someone on the mosque board" for a good friend at the ADL.
According to the ISB, Islamic scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi claimed under
oath that the pro-Israel Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
misrepresented a political comment made in Arabic by ISB Board of
Trustee member Dr. Walid Fitaihi.
In April 2007, Dr. Walid Fitaihi returned from Saudi Arabia to offer
"an apology without condition" to Jewish leaders in Brookline,
Massachusetts for his words, which "he recognized were offensive to
Jews."
Fitaihi was on a list of twenty Muslims compiled by the David Project,
the ADL and Steve Emerson.
On February 3, 2005 at a synagogue in Newton, Massachusetts, Jihad
Watch director Robert Spencer summarized their broad and
unsubstantiated allegations in a PowerPoint presentation entitled
"The Boston Mosque: Do Tolerance and Diversity go both ways?"
Original emails:
http://members.aol.com/tprovoni/DavidProject/FainburgDiscovery.pdf
===
Evidence: Frivolous Lawsuit was Aimed at Ethnic Intimidation
The Muslim Observer
http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=1017
Boston--May 22, 2007--New court evidence reveals that David Project
directors and several attorneys were planning to stop construction of
the Roxbury Mosque.
One attorney suggested, "How about simply appealing the building
permit and tying things up?"
"Ultimately our interest is based on the premise that…people in the
ISB are supporters of terrorism and sworn enemies of America and
Jews," said real estate developer Steve Cohen.
The group decided to investigate potential parking violations and
other legal technicalities.
On July 22, 2004 David Project director Anna Kolodner started panicking.
"The steel is going up on the Mosque," she wrote to the group. "We
need to have a plaintiff. This is a priority. Please contact any
individuals that would consider this role and let us know."
Using the lawsuit, Kolodner demanded records from the Boston
Redevelopment Authority to use for negative publicity.
Realizing that few Americans could care less where the Islamic Society
of Boston obtained their mortgage, Cohen discussed creating suspicion
by using vague language to question the mosque's non-criminal foreign
"connections."
"However, the First Amendment will bar any governmental action against
the mosque based on these connections - not in the absence of
incitement that might lead to `imminent action.' So all we are left
with is a public relations campaign."
This admission betrays a premeditated decision to incite hate by using
"terrorist" as an ethnic slur to manipulate public sentiment, while
their plaintiff sued the city for selling to Muslims.
"The suit itself will have to stick to the narrow constitutional
issues, which have nothing to do with the terrorist connections,"
Cohen continued. "However, the pr campaign surrounding the suit can
strike a different chord: i.e. that the city of Boston should not be
subsidizing a mosque or any organization with terrorist connections."
"We will be much more effective if we let others ask this question
than if we do so ourselves," Cohen strategized.
On September 2, 2004, Anna Kolodner wrote, "Filing the lawsuit will
serve to trip the switch on the larger agenda of exposing the radical
fundamentalist underpinnings of the Mosque and its leaders…We need to
develop a media campaign and identify who will be the public
spokesperson for the group…We need an expert in power point to develop
a presentation that can be used with the media, politicians, and
community groups."
That power point expert would turn out to be the notorious Robert Spencer.
===
David Project spreads Islamophobic propaganda to thwart Boston Mosque
Scott Sorrell
Muckraker Report
http://www.muckrakerreport.com/id421.html
May 21, 2007 -- On May 7, 2007, Karin Friedemann, editor of the World
View News Service in Boston, published an illuminating article on a
group called the David Project, an Israel advocacy group, which has
campaigned to prevent the construction of a mosque in Boston.
In her beginning summary, Friedemann writes:
"The David Project conspired with real estate agents and politicians
to organize a campaign to deny the Boston Muslim community their 1st
amendment rights to worship freely. This week, Jessica Masse,
interfaith coordinator of the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB),
publicly released recent discovery materials as part of the ISB's
conspiracy lawsuit, which reveal that an Israel advocacy organization,
which specializes in creating malicious anti-Arab, anti-African and
Islamophobic propaganda, met with real estate investors, attorneys,
and Republican activists at their office at 210 South Street on Boston
to discuss their intentions `to present a legal challenge' to the
Roxbury Mosque project'. [1]
Later in her article, Friedemann discusses emails that demonstrate the
machinations of the David Project in their attempt to deny the ISB its
Constitutional right to free worship. For example, Anna Kolodner, the
executive director of the David Project circulated an idea originating
from Josh Katzen that the attempts to construct the mosque might be
scuttled if the ISB was denied building permits for the parking for
the mosque.
Here is a syllabus of the key players who collude to deny the ISB
their mosque.
Josh Katzen - real estate developer
Jonathon Leffell - property developer, chairman of the New England
"Friends of the Israel Defense Forces"
William Sapers - instigated the anti-Mosque campaign (according to
Friedemann), insurance agency owner in Cambridge, director of Combined
Jewish Philanthropies (does this act count as philanthropy?)
Steven Cohen - CEA Group owner
Avi Goldwasser - movie producer, responsible for "Coumbia Unbecoming"
in which scholars in the Middle East Studies program like Rashid
Khalidi are attacked in a vitriolic anti-Arab screed.
Larry DiCara - Republican politician
Mickey Segal - David Project intern
Monty Gold - Anna Kolodner's husband
Rabbi Melman
Jeff Jacoby - columnist at the Boston Globe that figures prominently
in the emails among the David Project members; noted for using
statements/press releases from the David Project in his columns
Charles Jacobs - co-founder of the David Project
According to Friedemann's article, Charles Jacobs had an objective to
somehow enlist the Black Church community in the Boston area as a
possible plaintiff!
Lacking the courage to risk exposing itself, this spineless bunch
wanted to use the Black Church community as a human shield of sorts,
similar to the practices of the Israeli Defense Forces in the occupied
territories.
When these efforts failed the David Project enlisted the help of James
Policastro. According to two writers from the Boston Globe, Yvonne
Abraham and Stephen Kurkjian:
The Islamic Society also contends that a suit filed in November 2004
by Mission Hill resident James C. Policastro was part of a conspiracy
to stop the mosque. Policastro's suit alleges that deal reached in
2000 by the society and the Boston Redevelopment Authority that
provided the land for the mosque allowed the society to purchase the
land too cheaply. That, Policastro's suit alleges, violated
constitutional provisions prohibiting government from unfairly
assisting religious institutions.
Under the 2000 deal, the Islamic Society of Boston bought the Roxbury
land, valued at $401,187, for $175,000. The remainder was to be paid
in kind: the Islamic Society was to maintain a playground and park by
the Roxbury parcel for 10 years, offer lectures on Islam at Roxbury
Community College next door, help develop an Islamic library there,
and assist the college foundation in fund-raising. [2]
Rightfully so, the Policastro suit was dismissed by the courts this
year as being meritless. One might think the David Project members
would be deterred by the dismissal, but not so. Steven Cohen gives
some insight into his scheming mind:
"The fact that a governmental action was taken in Boston may make this
mosque more vulnerable to legal, political, or media attack" ¹
When all else failed, the David Project then played the penultimate
fear card. The David Project alleged that the ISB's upper echelon was
populated with "supporters of terrorism", a charge that even Jimmy
Carter cannot escape! The David Project officials charged that
Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi, Yusef Avdullah al-Qaradawi, Walid Ahmad
Fatihi, Mustafa Abu Sway were all linked to Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic
Jihad, and any other "terrorist" group they could come up with. So
what do the facts say on this issue?
Steven Cohen, in an email to Anna Kolodner, outlined his idea:
"Aside from our 1st Amendment claims and the various other strategies
to attack the mosque, ultimately our interest is based on the premise
that some of the senior people in the ISB are supporters of terrorism
and sworn enemies of America and Jews, and that the construction of
the mosque may be funded by Wahhabis. If we are going to convince
others to support our cause, especially in the media, we will need
reasonably well-supported allegations".
Notice what Coehn did not say. Cohen did not say that proof existed
that the senior leaders at the ISB were connected to the Wahhabi
movement, but that they needed "reasonably well-supported allegations"!
Of course when this agenda is public discourse, one can understand the
machinations of this insidious David Project group, which received
$500,000 in 2004 in taxpayer funds as a "charitable organization". One
must also question why the government directs such impressive funds to
a group with sinister motives, namely subjugating the Constitution
while using the Constitution as its chief tool. That's real chutzpah!
The David Project has enlisted the help of other pro-Israel groups in
their character assassinations of the senior leaders of the ISB,
including Robert Leikind, the executive director of the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is notorious for defamation of
character ironically, Rita Katz, a former FBI informant at the SITE
Institute, and Ilana Freedman, a so-called expert on terrorism.
Some open questions to the David Project should be posed, and answers
should be demanded.
Were concerted efforts made to block the construction of a synagogue,
would the David Project and the ADL and the media apparatus stand by
and do nothing? Would the political tool of charging anti-Semitism be
employed? Would the aforementioned groups be bullied in like fashion?
But in the ongoing debate concerning anti-Arab anti-Muslim attitudes
in the US post 9-11, one must note how groups like the David Project
exploit the travesty of 9-11 to pursue their despicable and racist
hidden agendas. In my opinion, these efforts are beyond chutzpah and
belong in a category all their own – They are Chazari.
[1] Karin Friedemann, Damning Evidence Against The David Project,
World View News Service, May 7, 2007,
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0705/S00149.htm, [Accessed May 17, 2007]
[2] Yvonne Abraham and Stephen Kurkjian, Praised as beacon, mosque
project stalls amid rancor, Boston Globe staff, December 18, 2005,
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/18/praised_as_beacon_mosque_project_stalls_amid_rancor/,
[Accessed May 17, 2007]
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