Ingrid Mattson: "[the Christians] are really anti-Semitic. They do not like Jews"

Nice try, Lady, but it won't work.  From today's Boston Globe about Ingrid Mattson's lecture at Harvard yesterday:

"The president of the Islamic Society of North America warned last night that American Jews who ally with right-wing Christians to oppose Muslim organizations are pursuing a high-risk strategy that could backfire. Ingrid Mattson....said that many American Jews have an existential fear that Muslims are anti-Israel."

Golly gee willikers, I wonder where they get that crazy idea???  Maybe from the endless stream of anti-Israel material that comes from the Muslim American Society, Muslim Student Associations, CAIR and countless Islamic websites? Maybe from the college students protestors led by the Muslim Student Union that called for Israel to be wiped out? (At UC/Irvine in February 2007: "They (Israelis) have no future. And it’s just a matter of time before the state of Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth. Takbir! Allahu akbar!")  I'd have an existential fear about that myself.  Dr. Mattson continues:

"Such fear leads Jews to ally with Christian fundamentalists who are supportive of Israel and critical of Islam, she said.  'Right-wing Christians are very risky allies for American Jews,' Mattson said, 'because they [the Christians] are really anti-Semitic. They do not like Jews' and enter into the alliance on the basis of fundamentalist beliefs that it would be desirable for all Jews to return to Israel. She suggested that fundamentalist Christians might turn against Jews or that there could be backlash from ordinary Americans against Jewish and fundamentalist Christian supporters of Israel."

Wowee.  Way to go, Dr. Mattson, what a great way to promote interfaith understanding!  They do not like the Jews and want all Jews to return to Israel. 

Apalling, Dr. Mattson, appalling and wrong.  You should be ashamed really.  What, pray tell, is the basis of these assertions of yours? 

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) used the copyrighted Globe story word for word to create a press release, although the  Boston Globe isn't listed as the source.  (UPDATE, 4:30 PM, press release removed from the site.)

Dr. Mattson is the head of the ISNA, "which was established by the MSA in 1982 to serve as an umbrella organization for Sunni Muslim groups across the country."  According to the Pluralism Project, the ISNA has some 400 member schools and 1,200 Islamic centers and mosques.  In Massachusetts, member organizations include the Islamic Society of Boston, the Islamic Center of Boston (in Wayland), the IS of Greater Lowell, the IS of Worcester,  the IS of Western Massachusetts, and many others.  What are these affiliated schools and masjids teaching their members?