"Documentary" on the Roxbury Mosque

I was tempted to attend the screening last week of In Good Faith, the Building of a Mosque and a Community, a "documentary" by Boston College student Matthew Porter, '09.  But Camille Paglia was at Harvard the same night, and Camille won out for me.  Solomonia went to the screening though and gives his two cents here. 

According to Sol, although Porter calls himself a journalist, the documentary (mockumentary?) was anything but even-handed.  The Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) comes off as the good guys, Citizens for Peace and Tolerance (CPT) comes off as the bad guys.  BC professor Hale of CPT was portrayed negatively because he didn't "engage in dialogue" with the ISB.

Hmmm, did the ISB "engage in dialogue" before suing Professor Hale and sixteen other people, media companies and citizens groups?  No, no they did not.  As Sol says, the film's treatment of BC professor Hale is worse than shameful:

"This ill-use of a fine man, Dennis Hale... moves the film into something worse than simple naive fantasy. It now picks up where the ISB left off its work of personal destruction against those who would criticize."

Walid Fitaihi, the on-again/off-again ISB trustee, who is single-handedly responsible for much of the concern about the ISB leadership, is not mentioned in the film.  Sheikh Ahmed Mansour, a Muslim who criticized the reading material he found at the ISB mosque in Cambridge and was subsequently sued by the ISB, is not mentioned in the film.  Neat trick, that, Matthew.

"Had the film stuck to the story of Muslims in America, told through the story of a mosque and community, we may have just had a silly piece of propaganda, not worth much, least of all a lengthy review.... But because it purports to address the very serious legal and cultural matters involved, does so in such a distorted and dishonest manner, and continues the personal attacks that made the ISB's lawsuits so damaging in the first place (all for the sake of dialog don't you know), it turns itself into something much worse."

If you want to know about the "mosque controversy" and the Islamic Society of Boston, please read The Silencing (written by Sol) at Pajamas Media.  And scan my blog posts on the ISB here.

Comments

[Azzam]

There is a large Muslim community in Boston. Majority of them are trying to live their life under the law of the land (as the Muslim Prophet,PBH, has asked the Muslims to do when they go to a different land).
This Muslim community has to build places of worship. The question that needs answer is not that some red bricks soared to the sky and the result looks like a Middle Eastern Mosque but what "ideology" will flow through there?
Is it the "ideology" subscribed to by the Majority of the Muslims in the Boston area or in some stealth way leadership was imposed on the community (and by foreign money involvement also)?
What is the democratic structure of the organization building this place of worship?
And since in America freedom of speech is still practiced, can a Muslim without fear ask this question: O'Grand Builders what is your denomination? And expect to get an answer?
There is no Mosque in Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, where the Builder Trustees live,that has no "denomination". After all you are connected with Mosques in the Far Lands. Why not state this openly?

There is lot more one could write about "tsunami" nature of a certain "ideology". But for practical purposes I will give a concrete example. There is a 100 year old Muslim community in Boston area (Quincy to be exact) that existed under the Islamic Center of New England. Did the Trustee Builders allow their Imam to carry money (in stealth way) to start schools in the buildings of that Community (ICNE) and send its Vice President to become a Board Member in that Community and in violation of all rules separate the Religious Director from the Community.(Just google...newspapers were full of it). When the Community does not have a place to sit with its choice of Religious Director does it not disintegrate (from 2000 members it is down to 450 or so). Was that very "Islamic" act? (I am told for this particular "ideology" that is very Islamic because now they can make this community "true Muslims".)

They will not answer the question about "denomination". But it will come out. Even classified material gets declassified (with passage of time)in the United States of America!

Let me ask a simple question? The Islamic Center of New England had a constitution that stated that"all religious activity is under the Religious Director.......". So anyone becoming a member of that community agreed to abide by this rule. But the Builder Trustees allowed their Imam to be a Member of ICNE, actively vote in the ICNE elections, actively take his own flock from Cambridge to vote in the elections of ICNE.
This was all done without the permission of the Religious Director of the ICNE.
There is a rule in Islamic Communities that you do not go as Imam in the community of another Imam (for religious interaction) without his permission. (I am told similar rule applies in Christian and Jewish communities).
Builder Trustees surly know this rule.
Does this Imam (of the Builder Trustees) not know
this rule? Or he thought no one is watching?
Will they answer this simple question?