Monday, December 1, 2008
Charles Jacobs in this week's Jewish Advocate on the Boston Saudi-funded mosque (in full): Menino's Mosque:
This was the title of the Boston Phoenix's lead story last week, featuring on the cover an image of Mayor Menino serving up a new mosque on a silver platter to --- the story argues -- exactly the wrong people.
The Phoenix report is the first public account of how a well intentioned Mayor tried to help local African-American Muslims in Roxbury build a mosque, but wound up subsidizing what many in Boston worry is a Saudi-funded and controlled center with connections to radical Islam --- a mile from downtown.
Phoenix reporter David Bernstein sketches a complex tale of good intentions gone awry. At the center of Bernstein's account is Muhammad Ali-Salaam, who played a double role: as promoter and fundraiser for the mosque, while being paid as a city official to guard Boston's interests.
Twenty years ago, Bernstein says, the Muslim Council of Boston (MCB), a consortium of Sunni congregations in Roxbury, proposed to build a mosque on land held by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). Mayor Ray Flynn was supportive. He had worked as a probation officer years before and came to know people at Roxbury's Intervale Street mosque who he thought "could do good for their community."
But in 1996, when it became clear that the MCB could not raise enough money, the BRA's Ali-Salaam put forward another group -- the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) --- as the designated developers and helped the ISB get the $2 million dollar parcel for $175K.
Did the BRA ever vet the ISB? Bernstein describes ISB members as "largely of Saudi Arabian heritage." Simple due diligence would have found that Yusef al Quaradawi, then a registered ISB Trustee, called for the killing of Jews and homosexuals, that the ISB's website featured instructions on wife-beating, and that ISB Trustee Walid Fitahi called Jews the "murderers of prophets." Today, the ISB's founder is in prison as an al-Queda money runner. Even the BRA should know that a mosque that gets millions from the Saudis is unlikely to be an enthusiastic promoter of moderate Islam.
Now, Bernstein says, the Mayor hides from the issue in a "zone of silence," and doesn't show up at mosque events. The BRA, which is being sued to open its public records, seems to want the silence permanent: BRA officials recently told the judge that all relevant e-mails have disappeared.
At the height of the controversy over the leadership of the mosque, the ISB claimed that it had cleansed itself of objectionable characters. Fitahi actually resigned from the ISB board. But now, Bernstein tells us, Fitahi is back.
And Bernstein reports that the ISB recently turned the mosque over to the Muslim American Society (MAS). This is a group thought by some to be the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, sparked and now may guide the anti-West jihad.
Has the BRA put the mayor in an untenable position? Has the time come for a FinCom investigation of the BRA/ISB/MAS deal?
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Charles Jacobs: Menino's Mosque.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/15814
7 Comments
Leave a comment to: Charles Jacobs: Menino's Mosque
Comment Info and Policy:
1) You must have Javascript enabled in your browser in order to comment (blame the spammers). If you don't know what that is, you're probably fine.
2) HTML is on, so basic html should work. Raw links will be made auto-clickable, too, so even if you don't know html you can just paste in the link and it should work fine. Keep the "http://" in it.
3) Comments are generally unmoderated, which means I don't necessarily agree with the tone and tenor of everything posted. In fact, sometimes people post things they don't really mean just to make other people look bad. The internet is an anonymous place for the most part. That said...
4) I welcome you to post here. I'd love to have your input, agree, disagree or just offer a different data point, really. If I didn't want any participation, I'd turn off comments. Be aware, however, that this blog and the comments section exist for my entertainment. Therefore, I reserve ALL RIGHTS here, including the right to remove any or all comments on nothing more than a whim. Please don't even bother complaining. I'm the one providing the space and the free news and thought buffet. I don't owe anyone anything.
Anyone who posts here will be treated as my guest. That means I'm happy to be polite as a default, but if anyone is rude to the host they'll be unceremoniously shown the door.
It may pay to recall a famous line from the Tom Selleck magnum opus, Mr. Baseball: "Jack-san, you want Yoji's advice about the babes, you come to Yoji with respect."
5) Enjoy your stay!
, p.30
Charles, This is a recycled campaign of hatred. Much of what Berstein's article has been recycled and the failed result of thwarted efforts by Islam-hate groups such as member from this very advocate group and associates of the David Project and other hate bent individuals. It is obvious that this is a Jewish lead campaign of hatred and much of the claims that Berstein writes about are unsubstantiated and blatant LIES. As a Jew I have to stand up and not let this hatred lable those of us who know the facts. The facts are is that Berstein is unable and unwilling to provide facts regarding this claim that this Mosque is Saudi funded because it is not. This mosque is a community funded project from many hard working Muslim-Americans. The purchase of this land was done 100% legally. The ISBCC is built and there is nothing you can do to stop it. What these attacks are about are clear indications of jealousy and hatred. Berstein writes about a survery done by BU's Stephen Young who claims "he surveyed 50 local ISB and MAS-Boston members for a just-published dissertation on the ISB. They were asked on a numerical scale how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the statement: "Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished." Rather than rejecting this extremist sentiment, the average response fell in the middle. The Arabs among those surveyed were most likely to agree." This survey never happened nor are there any materials supporting this alleged publication. It is a Fraud much like many of these claims. Is it so hard for Jewish people to show any tolerance when it comes to Muslims or does the cycle of hatred continue on. As far as I am concerned Jews are hell bent on intolerance of this community.
Charles, This is a recycled campaign of hatred. Much of what Berstein's article has been recycled and the failed result of thwarted efforts by Islam-hate groups such as member from this very advocate group and associates of the David Project and other hate bent individuals. It is obvious that this is a Jewish lead campaign of hatred and much of the claims that Berstein writes about are unsubstantiated and blatant LIES. As a Jew I have to stand up and not let this hatred lable those of us who know the facts. The facts are is that Berstein is unable and unwilling to provide facts regarding this claim that this Mosque is Saudi funded because it is not. This mosque is a community funded project from many hard working Muslim-Americans. The purchase of this land was done 100% legally. The ISBCC is built and there is nothing you can do to stop it. What these attacks are about are clear indications of jealousy and hatred. Berstein writes about a survery done by BU's Stephen Young who claims "he surveyed 50 local ISB and MAS-Boston members for a just-published dissertation on the ISB. They were asked on a numerical scale how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the statement: "Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished." Rather than rejecting this extremist sentiment, the average response fell in the middle. The Arabs among those surveyed were most likely to agree." This survey never happened nor are there any materials supporting this alleged publication. It is a Fraud much like many of these claims. Is it so hard for Jewish people to show any tolerance when it comes to Muslims or does the cycle of hatred continue on. As far as I am concerned Jews are hell bent on intolerance of this community.
Henry, this mosque is part of a campaign of hatred that has been going on for hundreds of years, since Allah's Wahhabi terrorists have been in existence. And yes, this mosque, like most of the Salfi terrorism that occurs worldwide, is funded by Saudi money. According to Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi sheik and leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, 80% of all mosques in America are Saudi-funded. This Salafi takeover of Islam, like the building of this mosque, was 100% legal. The Saudis are our trusted allies, after all.
Back in Back in 1921, Winston Churchill described our moderate Salafi allies this way*:
In the vast deserts of Arabia, which stretch eastward and north-eastward from the neighbourhood of Mecca to the Persian Gulf and to the boundaries of Mesopotamia, there dwell the people of Nejd, powerful nomadic tribes, at the head of whom the remarkable chief Bin Saud maintains himself. This Arab chief has long been in a state of warfare, raid, and reprisal with King Hussein and with his neighbours generally. A large number of Bin Saud’s followers belong to the Wahabi sect, a form of Mohammedanism which bears, roughly speaking, the same relation to orthodox Islam as the most militant form of Calvinism would have borne to Rome in the fiercest times of the religious wars. The Wahabis profess a life of exceeding austerity, and what they practise themselves they rigorously enforce on others. They hold it as an article of duty, as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and to make slaves of their wives and children. Women have been put to death in Wahabi villages for simply appearing in the streets. It is a penal offence to wear a silk garment. Men have been killed for smoking a cigarette, and as for the crime of alcohol, the most energetic supporter of the temperance cause in this country falls far behind them. Austere, intolerant, well-armed, and bloodthirsty, in their own regions the Wahabis are a distinct factor which must be taken into account, and they have been, and still are, very dangerous to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and to the whole institution of the pilgrimage, in which our Indian fellow-subjects are so deeply concerned.
Saudi Arabia, a relentlessly traditional culture, hasn't changed much since then.
It's also worth noting that Saudis are funding the terrorist group that carried out the attacks in Mumbai. The Indian fellow subjects had every reason to be concerned. And you're campaigning to help Saudis build a mosque in Boston, in an effort to show "tolerance" of a culture based on hate? Brilliant plan.
I heard Charles Jacobs speak out against slavery in the Sudan, and it was obvious that the Sudanese in the audience had a lot of admiration and respect for Mr. Jacobs. Your pathetic efforts to portray this anti-slavery advocate as "intolerant" or "hateful" are egregious and an insult to our intelligence.
Before building or opening another mosque in Boston, tie it to the construction and opening of a Church, Synagogue, Temple in Saudi Arabia.
To demonstrate Islamic openmindedness.
Dude...in saudia arabis there are no christians or jews ofcourse.......all the arabian people are muslims........ employees come in contracts to the desert for certian time and leave.......so no need to build churches and syngoges of course.....for weekly cermonies.
on the other hand all muslims countries have churches and syngoyges....so if you didnt like to work in saudia arabia because there is a lack of bars ... I mean churches and other places of worship which I respect....you can change your destination to other country....nobody is forcing any foreighner to come to saudia.....ofcourse they are all welcomed .
ok dooooooooooooood
arabian, As long as Saudi Arabia blocks the construction and prohibits open expressions of religions other than islam, NO MORE SAUDI WAHABBI ISLAMOFASCIST funded mosques.
Infact I suggest that ALL Saudi funded instituions of the "Religion of Peace" be SHUT DOWN and repurposed until Saudi Islamofascists see the light.
Quid Pro Quo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quid_pro_quo
Shalom.
Considering how the commodities market is crashing, we may not have to worry about the influence of Saudi money at all.
Too bad they can't eat light sweet crude. However, the KSA does have plenty of crunchy, nutritious camel spiders..