New Dirt on "Menino's Mosque" in Boston

Excellent investigative article in the Boston Phoenix, available on the web today, to be printed tomorrow.  Reporter David Bernstein covers a lot of ground here, going back to 1988 and the very beginning of the mosque project, which was initiated by a council of Roxbury Muslims.  This article is terrific, he covers all the salient issues:

• Mosque project of local Roxbury Muslims taken over by Middle Eastern immigrant Muslims,
• City gives sweetheart deal, essentially subsidizes a religious entity,
• Ciy gives the OK to a woefully underfunded project (it's still $2 million short),
• City never got the "benefits" promised by the  Islamic Society of Boston (the mosque has "neglected its contractual obligation to maintain nearby parks"),
• BRA's Muhammad Ali Alaam worked on behalf of the mosque, clearly had its interests at heart, not the City's, in an obvious conflict of interest,
• Notes the replacement of the ISB by the Muslim American Society, and the MAS's takeover of other local Muslim orgnizations,
• Notes the ousting of Imam Talal Eid from the slamic Center of New England,
• Covers the ISB lawsuits against the Herald, Fox News, David Project and others,
• Discusses the links between ISB/MAS folks and P-Tech, which was raided by the feds, P-Tech was also connected to Care International (small world!), P-Tech gets its own sidebar.
• Tracks Dianne Wilkerson'strong support of the mosque project (given her recent bribery and corruption charges, one wonders if the ISB gave her any moula),
• Reminds us about Walid Fitaihi, the on again/off again ISB trustee, who recently gave $250K to the mosque (he always was their sugar daddy),
• Menino's role and the inability of Boston city councilors to challenge him.

Great article, lots of material, much of it new.  Also excellent sidebars.  Excerpts:

"But while the community watches to see whether this new facility grows more inclusive or more conservative and separate, questions remain unanswered about why the city government went through so much effort — seemingly against its own policies and regulations at times — to facilitate a project that had no adequate funding, questionable community benefit, and uncomfortable associations with extremists."

"It is the involvement of city officials — backed by the strong support of Menino and the now scandal-tinged state senator Dianne Wilkerson — that distinguishes this project from the many churches, synagogues, mosques, and other facilities that are built and expanded all the time."

I'm disappointed that ISB/MAS imam (sheikh?) Basyouny Nehela wan't even mentioned in the article.  He once again manages to escape any scrutiny.  How did he get here?  Who brought him here from Egypt?  Given all the seaminess with these folks, Nehela has to have something going on.  Also no mention of the ISB's latest trustee, Dr. Jamal Badawi, who was personally named in the US Muslim Brotherhood's 1991 planning document. Remember this charming quote from that document:

“The Ikhwan (Muslim Brothers) must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” 

For even the liberal Boston Phoenix to sit up and pay close attention to the ISB/MAS and the City's role in the mosque project is news in itself.  Good job, Boston Phoenix!