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Did I say that?<\/div>\n

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The Islamic Society of Boston<\/a> 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<\/a> their seven month dispute with the mosque (claiming they were uncooperative<\/a>), finally prompting a response<\/a> to critics for \u201ctrying to instill fear and hostility\u201d (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<\/a> statements in articles published overseas (calling Jews \u201cthe murderers of prophets\u201d in a London paper), \u201cevidently written at a time of high emotion and great violence perpetrated by both sides of the conflict,\u201d the society said (Note to responsible leaders: Control your emotions). To his credit, he has defended<\/a> 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<\/a> ran a series of articles linking the mosque to such controversial figures as Sheikh Yousef Al Qaradawi<\/a> (now banned) and Abdurahman Alamoudi<\/a> (now jailed). Neither have been remotely associated with the ISB since the 1980\u2019s. More? A group (generically) named Citizens for Peace and Tolerance<\/a> also held a conference<\/a> Tuesday to publicize the case, highlighted by the comments of one of them thar Free Muslims<\/a>, Ahmed Subhy Mansour<\/a>, who said he discovered \u201chateful statements against the United States\u201d in the mosque. Add to that claims of a sweetheart deal<\/a> on the mosque\u2019s land, prompting a probe by two city councillors. Despite all this, the mosque is confident that the air will be cleared\u2026 eventually. \u201dI\u2019m asking the [authorities] to do research on the whole issue \u2014 just to satisfy my curiosity,\u201d Mayor Thomas M. Menino said<\/a>. \u201dThere 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com.\u00a0 He is based in London, England.\n<\/p>\n

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