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May 29, 2007
US: Islamic Society Of Boston Abandons Its Legal Vendetta
Finally, an end has come to the long-running saga of the Islamic Society of Boston's lawsuit against various groups whom it claimed were "defaming" it. The ISB has dropped its case.
The 16 respondents in the case included Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project, the David Project (a group which aims to promote understanding about Israel, and a "fair and honest understanding of the Middle East conflict"), Citizens for Peace & Tolerance, the Boston Herald, Fox News. Two individuals from the David Project were also personally named in the suit: Anna Kolodner, the David Project's director of education, and Charles Jacobs. Mr Jacobs is a founder-chairman of the American Anti-Slavery Group, which for more than a decade has helped free 80,000 slaves, and also someone who has drawn attention to genocides in Darfur.
I have written to the David Project in the hope that their press release (found here and here) can be reproduced in its entirety on Western Resistance, with their permission.
In the meantime, here are some extracts of what we have written previously on this case.
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US: Boston Islamic Society - The Enemy Within?
January 2, 2006
The Boston Islamic Society, founded in 1982, has been busy of late, filing lawsuits against anyone who dares to even question their motives or their legitimacy in constructing a mosque at Roxbury, whose cost is estimated to run to $24 million dollars. When complete, it will be the largest Muslim religious building in the northeastern US. It will have a 125-foot minaret and a 75-foot dome.
The first "groundbreaking" happened on November 7, 2002, when luminaries of the mosque and the City posed with shovels for the cameras. John Kerry (remember him?) praised the IBS for its "outstanding work", which was happening at a time when people needed "cross-cultural understanding and cooperaton."
But despite IBS' threats of lawsuits against its critics, the Boston Globe yesterday brought out a list of "questions the Islamic Society should answer".
The last time the Islamic Society tried to answer a newspaper's questions, it messed up badly. In March, 2004, Dr Walid Fitaih, one of the founders of the group was reported to have written in an Arabic newspaper that Jews were the "murderers of Prophets" and other anti-semitic comments, such as Jews would be punished for their "oppression, murder, and rape of the worshipers of Allah" by the Boston Herald. Fitaihi was a trustee and treasurer of IBS.
The answer to the Herald's commentary was placed on IBS' website on 10 September 2004, where it has remained. It states: "Ultimately, we decided, based on what we know of Dr. Fitaihi's views, the historic and linguistic context of the articles, as well as Dr. Fitaihi's internal statement on the issue, to accept his contention that the articles were intended to condemn particular individuals whom he believes were working to destroy one of Islam's holiest sites, killing innocent children, and thereby blocking the possibility of peace in the Middle East; the articles were not meant to incite hatred of an entire faith or people."
On October 14, 2004, the Boston Globe reported that Boston Islamic Society was publicly distancing itself from Dr Walid Fitaihi, following pressure from various groups, including Jewish citizens' groups. IBS sent a letter, signed by 7 board members, to Mayor Thomas M. Menino, apologising for producing "ambivalent" statements about the case.
But the "ambivalent" September 10 statement remains on their website, so perhaps they are not as morally scrupulous as they would like to appear. Yesterday's "questions" in the Globe include the following points.
One of the eight founders of the group is Abdurahman Alamoudi (pictured left). He is serving a 23-year prison term for being involved in an assassination plot. He was an outspoken supporter of terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and has been identified by the US Treasury Department as a fund-raiser for al-Qaeda.
It took seven months for the Boston Islamic Society to repudiate Dr Walid Fitaihi's anti-semitic comments.
For years, one of the listed trustees of the ISB in its tax returns and on the website was Yusef al Qaradawi, the Qatari-based sheikh, who has praised suicide bombers and advocated killing homosexuals. He has given his blessings to the killing of US soldiers in Iraq, and was asked to attend an IBS fundraiser event in 2002 (he is barred from the US, so he appeared via video-link). Qaradawi has said that Pokemon should be banned in Islamic nations, because it promotes Darwinism(!)
An examination of the Society's library in 2003 by an Islamic scholar found several publications and videos which promoted hostility to the US and were derogatory of other faiths.
These are the allegations contained in the article, by Jeff Jacoby, who condemns the recent recourse to lawsuits as an overreaction which "does rank-and-file Muslims no favors -- and gives all of us, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, another reason to wonder about its motives."
Recently, on 14 December, the Weekly Standard discussed the nature of the lawsuits emanating from the ISB.
There followed lawsuits. The ISB sued Fox Channel 25, the Boston Herald, and 14 other private citizens and organizations for having conspired to defame the organization. Meanwhile, a citizen of Boston sued the Boston Redevelopment Authority for giving the land for the mosque to the ISB at a price significantly below market value.They got the land, which had been valued as being worth more than $400,000, for a mere $175,000. To get the documentation signed by all the trustees, paperwork had to be sent to Saudi Arabia.
Private citizens named in the lawsuit, filed in May 2005, include TV and media news pundit Steve Emerson, who is described in the suit as a "widely discredited and self professed 'expert' on radical Islam and Islamic terrorism." The suit further claims "Emerson's research and findings have been routinely, publicly and severely criticized as both uninformed and biased against Muslims."
Another private citizen named in the defamation suit is Charles Jacobs (pictured right), who belongs to a group, the David Project which aims to come to a "fair and honest understanding of the Middle East conflict."
The Standard notes that Mr Jacobs is also founder-chairman of the American Anti-Slavery Group, which for more than a decade has helped free 80,000 slaves, and also someone who has drawn attention to genocides in Darfur. The Jewish Advocate notes on November 3 that, as well as charges of defamation, the lawsuit had been expanded to claim that the defendants conspired to deprive the plaintiffs of "their basic rights of free association and the free exercise of religion."
On Tuesday November 1, the David Project released a statement, containing the following: "The ISB lawsuit is an ugly and obvious attempt to bully American citizens into not exercising their fundamental First Amendment rights: the right to engage in free speech, the right to express views to governmental bodies about important public policy issues, and the right to communicate with other citizens."
The expansion of the suit was covered by the Boston Globe on 1 November.
In early November, a Suffolk Superior Court judge denied a motion to dismiss another lawsuit from progressing through the courts. This lawsuit, states Jewish Advocate, is against the city of Boston, charging that by selling the land to the ISB at a knock-down price, it violated the mandatory separation of church and state. The case was filed against the city of Boston and the Boston Redevelopment Authority by James Policastro.
The Weekly Standard states that one City Councillor, Jerry McDermott, has been looking into the possible waste of public money in the land deal between the city and the ISB, and has called for an open investigation. As a result, he has been threatened by ISB with lawsuits. He has also received threatening phone calls to his house, which he shares with a wife and two children.
Steve Emerson, the TV news pundit states that extremists "are adept at getting a toe-hold" in the States, and this time "it's happening at the behest and with the sanction of the government."
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US: CAIR Joins Boston Islamic Society Controversy
January 7, 2006
Today, Reuters discusses the rising tensions between ISB leadership and leaders of Jewish groups in Boston. On Thursday, Boston's Jewish Advocate newspaper carried a full page advertisement, in which ISB was accused of using litigation to suppress discussion, and also of failing to adequately respond to Jewish leaders' questions. Jewish leaders have, since London's 7/7, where mosques have been cited as sources of extremism, been concerned about mosques with possible terror links.
Larry Lowenthal heads the American Jewish Committee's Boston branch. He says: "There is a great deal of anxiety.... The distance that I think has to be established between these current leaders and their colleagues who have made troubling statements ... that distance has to be clearly distinct and established."
There are an estimated 240,000 Jews in the Boston region, with 70,000 Muslims. Reuters reports that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has 33 branches in the US and Canada, has also thrown its support behind the Islamic Society of Boston.
Arsalan Iftikhar, who is legal director for CAIR, said: "Unfortunately, I see the Boston case as indicative of a growing trend in anti-Muslim rhetoric that has grown after 9/11. It has especially impacted local Muslim communities in terms of building their mosques. High concentrations of Muslim populations are being given a hard time for just trying to practice their faith."
Well CAIR knows what a hard time it has had, just trying to practice its faith. CAIR was founded in 1994, at a period according to Ahmed Bedier, the group's communications director, when it was not "immoral" to support Islamic Jihad, the anti-Israeli terrorist organisation.
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US: Boston Islamic Society Can Proceed With Its Legal Vendetta
July 21, 2006
The Boston Globe reports that yesterday, a Superior Court judge ruled that the Islamic Society of Boston can go ahead with its legal suit, which claims that various groups "defamed" it.
The sixteen groups and individuals named in the suit include the Boston Herald, Fox Channel 25, The Jewish rights group The David Project and Citizens for Peace and Tolerance. The latter group is an alliance of Jewish, Christian and Muslim citizens opposed to religious bigotry.
The defamation suit alleges that the above-named groups, and others, by highlighting known links of the group's associates with terrorists, as printed in the Boston Herald and stated on Fox TV in 2004, attempted to halt the construction of the Roxbury Mosque......
.....Howard Cooper, the attorney for the Islamic Society of Boston, said: "For many months since my clients simply sought to file a lawsuit and redress their rights in court, all we heard was that we were attempting to intimidate people and we would end up having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees. The court has now rejected the defendants' arguments in their entirety and ruled that the ISB filed its lawsuit appropriately."
Jeff Robbins, attorney for some of the "nonmedia" defendants said the ruling would be appealed but was not a setback. He said his clients were eager to present their responses to the defamation suit in court. He said: "There is a very strong desire on the part of those who have been sued to lay out the evidence about the ISB on the public record. They think this is a very important public service, to lay out who provided the funds to the ISB, to whom the ISB has made contributions."
Howard Cooper called on those named in the suit to enter mediation on their dispute, and if they did so, the society would drop the suit.
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US: Boston Islamic Society's Lawsuit Progresses
September 23, 2006
ISB was founded in 1982. It has been linked with a dodgy land deal with Boston City, itself the subject of another lawsuit which is mounted against Boston and was allowed in November 2005 to progress through the courts by a Suffolk Superior Court judge. This case is being made against the city of Boston and the Boston Redevelopment Authority by James Policastro.
The land was sold to ISB at a knock-down price of $175,000 by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, even though its market value was said to be worth nearly half a million dollars. The land at Roxbury was to be used for the construction of a giant mosque which will, when completed, be the largest mosque in North America. On November 7, 2002, ISB officials and members of the City establishment posed with shovels for the cameras as the first "groundbreaking" took place. John Kerry praised ISB for its "outstanding work" and said the mosque was being built at a time when people needed cross-cultural understanding and cooperaton."
The mosque's construction costs are estimated at $25 million. It will have a 125-foot high minaret and a 75 foot high dome....
.....On July 20 Judge Janet L. Sanders said that a 1994 law, which was designed to protect private citizens who brought legal cases against developers, was not applicable when applied in a defamation case, and said that the lawsuit could go ahead.....
....Yesterday, Superior Court Judge Janet L. Sanders dismissed a claim by the defendants. ISB had made claims that the stories disseminated by the defendants had caused mosque donations to dry up. The defendants' lawyers had stated that the claims of conspiracy and defamation were related to stories which were protected under the First Amendment. This, the defendants argued, should mean the litigation should be abandoned. Judge Sanders rejected this line of argument and said that ISB's case should be heard in court.
And while ISB wastes its funds (now where do there funds come from?) on litigation, the proposed giant mosque remains in a state of incompletion at Roxbury Crossing.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 29, 2007 5:54 PM
Comments
Emerson, a Jew who gets it
A perspective of a moderate Muslim
At the risk of sounding anti-Semitic, I want to say this: either American Jews are completely clueless about the internal struggle inside Islam or they are so cowardly, that they are even afraid to voice their opinion. Or maybe it's a combination of both.
Every time there is a development that involves radical Islam, be it a Mayor of New York attending an Islamist parade, DOJ's officials attending an Islamist conference, or a protester being sued for having the balls to expose an Islamist-sponsored event at an amusement park, the American Jewish community is as quiet as a church mouse. It's like it is not even there.
The effect of this silence is devastating. Not for the Jewish community, not yet. That time is still to come. The silence affects the American Muslim community. Every time moderate Muslims are ignored and Islamists are legitimized (by either direct support from government representatives or silent support of the ADL), radicals gain ground. In the current PC climate, moderate Muslims have pretty much no choice but to keep their mouths shut.
Luckily for us, not everyone in the Jewish community is like that. There are some Jews that are speaking out. One of them is Steven Emerson, who has been warning the West about the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism since before PanAm 103. Most of his current work is focused on exposing the radicals masquerading as the moderates – those radicals who are embraced by the DOJ and the Pentagon, by the mayor of New York Bloomberg (Rudy would never get into bed with terrorist supporters) and the Treasury Department, by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, by the Congress and the White House.
There is a war of ideas within Islam, and moderate Muslims are losing. Most of Muslim clergy and Muslim establishment are paid for by the Wahhabis. Moderate Muslims are being run out of Mosques and community centers, and in many cases are physically threatened. Moderate Muslims have no place in the media or public debate, because the place reserved for Muslims is filled by Islamic radicals, who attempt to make criticizing anything Islamic a taboo. According to the Islamists, a Muslim can do no wrong.
1. When a non-Muslim criticizes Islam or Muslims, he/she is an Islamophobe.
2. When a Muslim criticizes Islam or Muslim, he/she is not a real Muslim, therefore see #1.
This is a tactic used by "moderate" Muslims, the darlings of the government and the media. But how can you call someone who praises bin Laden, or has ties to Hamas, or calls for the elimination of Israel, or wants to replace the Constitution with the Koran a moderate? They are anything but moderates, however nobody except for a few people like Steven Emerson seems to notice that. But even when the Emersons of America appeal to the public, they are often being dismissed as alarmists and racists. Well, they are anything, but. You don't have to be a clairvoyant to predict the future when it comes to expansion of radical Islam and extinction of moderate Muslims. All you need to do is get your heads out of the sand.
Why our government is so forgiving and forgetful when it comes to individuals or organizations with known terrorist ties and anti-American views is beyond me. Why the Jewish leaders are so timid when it comes to the subject of radical Islam is incomprehensible.
I thank God every day for people like Steven Emerson, because they are the last glimmer of hope for moderate Muslims.
K.M.
Original post
Posted by: Muslims Against Sharia ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.westernresistance.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 12, 2007 12:58 AM
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