SiteMeter tells me something about the folks who visit my blog, including the search terms that lead someone here. One search query I see a lot is "who are defendants in Islamic Society of Boston lawsuit?" To answer that question, the seventeen defendants in the amended lawsuit brought by the Islamic Society of Boston Civil Action No. 05-4637-F are as follows (in the order listed on the lawsuit):
- Boston Herald, Inc.
- Jonathan Wells (Herald reporter)
- Jack Meyers (Herald reporter
- Thomas Mashberg (Herald reporter)
- Maggie Mulvihill (Herald reporter)
- Kevin Wisniewski (Herald reporter, also Fox News)
- Fox Television Stations, Inc, dba WFXT-TV
- Michael Beaudet (Fox News)
- The Investigative Project, Inc.
- Steven Emerson (Investigative Project)
- William R. Sapers
- The David Project
- Anna Kolodner (The David Project)
- Citizens for Peace and Tolerance, Inc.
- Steven A. Cohen
- Dennis Hale
- Ahmed Mansour
Eight of the defendants are referred to as the "media entities," and the remaining nine defendants are referred to as the "Non-Media Defendants" in a court decision dated July 20, 3006. In that decision, Judge Janet Sanders denied the motion by the defendants to dismiss the lawsuit under the anti-SLAPP statute. There's some interesting background info in the decision, including the original Muslim group which approached the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) about Parcel R-14 in Roxbury:
"In July 1992, the BRA produced a Request for Proposals ('RFP') to develop Parcel R-14, including within it a detailed set of guidelines and instructions for potential developers. The College, together with other neighborhood organizations, supported the RFP. On October 31 and November 2, 1992, legal notices appeared in the Boston Herald inviting proposals...."
"The RFP received only one response ' from the Muslim Council of Boston (the 'Muslim Council'). It proposed to build on Parcel R-14 an Islamic Center, to be composed of a large mosque together with a school. The Muslim Council had had its eye on the site for a few years, since the biggest growth in its membership had come from the Roxbury community. The Muslim Council's proposal received overwhelming support from neighborhood groups and individuals, including state representative Gloria Fox. On December 22, 1992, the BRA met and voted to accept the Muslim Council as Parcel R-14's redeveloper. For the next few years, the project was at a standstill."
"....The ISB first came to the attention of the BRA in August 1998, when the Muslim Council recognized the ISB as its partner and asked the BRA to substitute the ISB as the redeveloper of Parcel R-14. The BRA staff considered the proposal and then recommended to the full Board that the substitution be approved. In a memorandum to the Board, the BRA's planning director noted that the ISB had retained two 'highly respected' architects and an environmental firm, with equity funding to be provided by the United Bank of Kuwait."
More research needed! Who was on the Muslim Council and why was the ISB brought in? I suppose it was for financing. How did this partnering come about? What role (if any) did the Muslim Council have after the ISB took over the reins of the mosque project?
http:// www.axis of logic.com/artman/publish/article_24497.shtml
PRESS RELEASE
Emails show pro-Israel anti-Mosque Campaign in Boston
Summary: The David Project conspired with real estate agents, lawyers and politicians to organize a campaign to deny the Boston Muslim community their 1st amendment rights to worship freely.
Contact: Karin Friedemann [email protected].
World View News Service
May 8, 2007
Read the original emails at: http: //tinyurl. com/ 23adhf
Posted by: Joachim Martillo | May 08, 2007 at 08:46 PM
Joachim/Thors,
I left the URLs in your comment, as well as the summary of your wife's press release. I deleted the text of the press release however. Someone will have to click to read the whole thing, which I do recommend. It's quite something, although not as exciting as the "The Night of Power" article from Al-Jazeerah (http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archives/004923.shtml).
Posted by: miss kelly | May 09, 2007 at 02:17 PM
Mary/Miss Kelly,
The urls are all broken with extra spaces or the inclusion of punctuation.
As for the "Night of Power" email, Karin's style is not mine, but she did a fairly good job of recasting the American prairie progressive political tradition with Islamic terminology.
If you want to read violent religious-political rhetorical excesses, you should check out 19th century politicized preachers that denounce the evil of the gold standard. Hagee's bloodthirsty fanatic Christian Zionist racist sermons are cut from the same cloth.
If you want to be disturbed by an article from a religious person, take a look at "The Virtue of Hate" by Meir Soloveitchik ( see http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=443 ). In point of fact, from the standpoint of religion there really is not much difference between Judaism and Christianity (or Islam) with regard to forgiveness.
Soloveitchik confuses Eastern European cultural attitudes shared by Eastern European Jews, Christians and Muslims with religious doctrine. A student of Catholicism with a similar confusion might study Sicilians look at some of the more blood-curdling passages of the bible and then write about the centrality of the vendetta as a Roman Catholic practice.
Posted by: Joachim Martillo | May 10, 2007 at 01:08 PM
Yes, the URLs are broken up with extra spaces, but anyone who uses the internet would figure out to remove those spaces. I'm not interested in direct links to your material.
Not sure what to make of your other stuff. You have a unique perspective.
Posted by: miss kelly | May 10, 2007 at 03:53 PM