...After Sept. 11, it became clear that mosques dominated by radical clerics were a potentially lethal threat. Many such mosques are funded by Saudi Arabia, which spends heavily to propagate Wahhabism, a fanatic and aggressive strain of Islam. The Saudi government, reported the 9/11 Commission, "uses zakat" -- Islamic charity -- "and government funds to spread Wahhabi beliefs throughout the world, including in mosques and schools. . . . Some Wahhabi-funded organizations have been exploited by extremists to further their goal of violent jihad against non-Muslims." Its findings were reinforced by Freedom House, which in 2005 documented the penetration of US mosques by Saudi-supplied Wahhabi hate literature.

It is against this background that the $24 million mosque and cultural center being built by the Islamic Society of Boston has generated such controversy.

Questions have been raised about the Islamic Society's past and present leaders, some of whom have supported Islamist terrorism or indulged in virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric. There are concerns about the sweetheart deal in which the land for the mosque was acquired from the City of Boston for a fraction of its value. Especially disturbing has been the Islamic Society's response to its diverse critics: a lawsuit accusing them of anti-Muslim conspiracy and libel.

That libel, the lawsuit charges, included claims that the "ISB receives funds from Wahhabis and/or Muslim Brotherhood and/or other Saudi/Middle Eastern sources" and that "the ISB Project was supported financially by donors from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states 'with known connections to radical Islamists.' " Given the Saudi role in disseminating jihadist fanaticism, it might indeed be defamatory to falsely accuse the ISB of financial ties to Saudi Arabia.

But such ties are quite real.

According to financial documents supplied to The Boston Globe, major funding for the mosque is being provided by the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In December 2005, two payments of approximately $250,000 each were wired from Jeddah to the Citizens Bank account of the mosque's general contractor in Boston. Messages confirming the payments were faxed from Jeddah to the Islamic Society of Boston on Dec. 19; these refer to the payments as "USA-52" and "USA-53." Other documents suggest that subsequent payments have been made as well.

The Islamic Development Bank is a subsidiary of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and each of the conference's 56 member nations are shareholders. But the largest shares are owned by Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Iran, which together control 48 percent of the bank's stock. Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Iran are also three of the world's foremost sponsors or incubators of terrorism. It is perhaps not surprising that the Islamic Development Bank, through its Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa funds, has become a leading funder of Palestinian suicide bombing, paying large financial subsidies to the families of terrorists.

The Islamic Society of Boston didn't return my calls, but its website notes that all donors are cross-checked against the government's terrorist watch list, and that funding is accepted only "with no strings attached." It notes too that it "rejects any interpretation of Islam that is considered fundamentalist, oppressive, radical, anti-Western, or anti-Semitic."

But questions remain. More questions will come. Suing the good people who ask them won't make the questions go away. Answering them candidly, on the other hand, just might.

The Islamic Society of Boston's effort to build the region's largest mosque has received at least $1 million in financing from a Saudi Arabia-based bank dominated by governments that critics of the mosque project say support Islamic extremism.

The Islamic society acknowledged yesterday receiving a $1 million loan from the Islamic Development Bank in late 2005 -- principal owners of which are Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran, and Egypt -- after opponents of the mosque project provided the Globe with documents showing that the bank paid about $500,000 in mosque construction bills late in 2005.

Work on the mosque, which is being built at Roxbury Crossing, ground to a halt last autumn due to lack of funds. But work restarted this week using the unexpended portion of the loan, $1 million in donations raised locally during last year's Ramadan holiday, and $1,352,500 from the sale of Islamic society property in Cambridge, society spokeswoman Jessica Masse said.

Backers of the mosque say the bank is a legitimate financial institution that supports important projects in the Islamic world.

The 56 members of the Organization of Islamic Conference contribute in varying degrees to the Islamic Development Bank, which uses their money to finance a broad range of agricultural, industrial, and infrastructure projects in the Islamic world. But Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran, and Egypt provide a majority of the funds. The bank also supervises and disburses money from special funds created to support Palestinian families, including the families of suicide bombers. Saudi Arabia is a major contributor to those special funds...

...The mosque project was originally budgeted at about $20 million. During early fund-raising efforts, according to the Islamic society, all donations came from individuals: about 40 percent from Massachusetts donors, 30 percent from Saudis, 12 percent from other Middle Easterners and 15 percent from Western Europeans.

Donations from these sources dried up, Islamic society officials say, because of what they allege was a conspiracy involving the Boston Herald, WFXT-TV (Channel 25), and individual activists, most of them Jewish, to block the project by accusing the society's leaders of terrorist associations. The alleged conspirators are now defendants in a defamation suit brought by the Islamic society...