Mosque controversy: A quiet conflict at a Boston mosque grows louder

Did I say that?

The Islamic Society of Boston should have had much to celebrate after beginning construction of its new $22 million mosque in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. But for many Bostonians, long standing questions about the mosques funders and board members finally boiled over in a public exchange. Local Jewish groups made public their seven month dispute with the mosque (claiming they were uncooperative), finally prompting a response to critics for “trying to instill fear and hostility” (being quiet until now helped, eh?). The primary allegations center around Dr. Walid Fitaihi, a board member of the mosque that has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements in articles published overseas (calling Jews “the murderers of prophets” in a London paper), “evidently written at a time of high emotion and great violence perpetrated by both sides of the conflict,” the society said (Note to responsible leaders: Control your emotions). To his credit, he has defended the rights of women in Saudi Arabia (where he has lived for many years), somewhat tempering the claims of extremism. Other concerns about the mosque date back to October of last year when the Boston Herald ran a series of articles linking the mosque to such controversial figures as Sheikh Yousef Al Qaradawi (now banned) and Abdurahman Alamoudi (now jailed). Neither have been remotely associated with the ISB since the 1980’s. More? A group (generically) named Citizens for Peace and Tolerance also held a conference Tuesday to publicize the case, highlighted by the comments of one of them thar Free Muslims, Ahmed Subhy Mansour, who said he discovered “hateful statements against the United States” in the mosque. Add to that claims of a sweetheart deal on the mosque’s land, prompting a probe by two city councillors. Despite all this, the mosque is confident that the air will be cleared… eventually. ”I’m asking the [authorities] to do research on the whole issue — just to satisfy my curiosity,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. ”There are a lot of good people in the Islamic Society. We shall not condemn a community for people who have been disassociated from the Society.”

Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com.  He is based in London, England.