Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Jeff Jacoby writes about the now-defunct Islamic Society of Boston lawsuit in his column today: A lawsuit without merit:
The complaint had accused the defendants of despicable behavior -- lying about the Islamic Society, vilifying innocent people, conspiring to deprive Boston-area Muslims of their civil rights. If even some of the charges were true, the defendants deserved to face harsh legal penalties and be shunned by the entire community. Instead, the Islamic Society dropped its suit without collecting a penny. Why?
Because the charges were false, that's why. And pretrial discovery -- the evidence being gathered through subpoenas and depositions -- was proving it...
Indeed, as those who read either my original piece The Silencing, or my more recent interview with lead attorney Jeff Robbins will be well aware of.
Last Wednesday evening, The David Project had a public event, their first since the conclusion of the suit, at which TDP head Charles Jacobs, Attorney Jeff Robbins, and Citizens for Peace and Tolerance board member Sheik Ahmed Mansour gave presentations. The Forward was there, and has what starts as a somewhat aggravating piece that sounds as though it was written by someone not completely sure of the facts -- too many uses of words like "alleged" and "accused" when referring to facts well-established, such as the massive funding the new Boston Mosque has received from Saudi Arabia. It recovers somewhat by correctly noting what has been established, such as:
It also came out that a society leader, Abdurahman Alamoudi, pled guilty to a 2003 indictment for his role in a terrorism financing scheme and is serving a 23-year prison term...
Well, that didn't exactly come out as a result of the suit, but it sure got some extra publicity. The article also portrays the opposition as coming from "pro-Israel" groups, while Citizens for Peace and Tolerance is headed by a Jew, an Episcopalian and a Muslim. The article:
We will be interested in the list of Rabbis who attend the opening of this Wahhabi mosque.
Miss Kelly was at the event and has a report here (awfully interesting comment "thread" there, btw). And new blog on the scene, Boston's Patriots was there, and has their report here. As always, the blogs make the best reading.
3 Comments
Leave a comment to: A lawsuit without merit
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!
Since you are interested coverage of the event by all who attended, here is my own.
http://www.contextflexed.com/storydavidproject.html
Unique perspective!
http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/06/open-letter-to-boston-globe-lawsuit.html
Open letter to the Boston Globe: A Lawsuit without Merit
Once Again Jeff Jacoby Regurgitates David Project Talking Points
Dear Editor,
If the complaint of the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) against Fox, the Boston Herald, the David Project and other defendants really had no merit as Jacoby asserts in "A Lawsuit without Merit" (The Boston Globe, June 27, 2007, http://tinyurl.com/33wogs), Justice Janet L. Sanders would not have ruled on September 25, 2006 that the ISB could continue its suit despite the defendants' motion for dismissal under the Massachusetts anti-SLAPP statute.
If the defendants, who were extremely well-funded and who had a much more expensive legal team than the ISB, were really so confident of victory and of their righteousness, David Project supporters could have paid for Policastro to appeal the dismissal of his lawsuit against the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and the ISB would not have withdrawn its complaint.
If Jacoby's analysis is credible, the defendants would have won, claimed all costs, broken the ISB, and stopped the construction of the Roxbury Mosque forever. The David Project and its allies would have achieved their goal as explicitly described in the discovery materials that were turned over to the ISB,
By Jacoby's logic, did the defendants not have an ethical obligation to follow such a strategy to prevent alleged "radical extremist Islam" from establishing a major foothold in Boston?
The mosque is on target for completion by Ramadan, which starts in September, and a large part of the Jewish community supports the ISB. Whatever senseless noise the Islamophobes continue to make, they lost while the ISB and the greater Boston community won.
Sincerely yours,
Joachim Martillo