Menino's Mosque - Where's the FinComm Investigation of the BRA?

Charles Jacobs writes a follow-up op-ed for the Jewish Advocate on Boston Mayor Menino's mosque, published last week in the Boston Phoenix.  Solomonia has the full text here.  Excerpts:

"The Phoenix report is the first public account of how a well intentioned Mayor tried to help local African-American Muslims in Roxbury build a mosque, but wound up subsidizing what many in Boston worry is a Saudi-funded and controlled center with connections to radical Islam --- a mile from downtown."

"Phoenix reporter David Bernstein sketches a complex tale of good intentions gone awry. At the center of Bernstein's account is Muhammad Ali-Salaam, who played a double role: as promoter and fundraiser for the mosque, while being paid as a city official to guard Boston's interests."

Miss Kelly thought the very same thing...where's the conflict of interest investigation??  More from Jacobs:

"Twenty years ago, Bernstein says, the Muslim Council of Boston (MCB), a consortium of Sunni congregations in Roxbury, proposed to build a mosque on land held by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). Mayor Ray Flynn was supportive. He had worked as a probation officer years before and came to know people at Roxbury's Intervale Street mosque who he thought 'could do good for their community' ."

"But in 1996, when it became clear that the MCB could not raise enough money, the BRA's Ali-Salaam put forward another group -- the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) --- as the designated developers and helped the ISB get the $2 million dollar parcel for $175K."

"...Bernstein reports that the ISB recently turned the mosque over to the Muslim American Society (MAS). This is a group thought by some to be the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, sparked and now may guide the anti-West jihad."

"Has the BRA put the mayor in an untenable position? Has the time come for a FinCom investigation of the BRA/ISB/MAS deal?"

I don't know the answer for the first question.  I do know the answer to the second question.  YES!

Previous blogposts on the Islamic Society of Boston here.

Comments

[Shawmut]

Touching upon the later citing, I labelled FINCOM as less tha useless.
"The Vault", (Boston Banks and Business leaders) I believe support the Municipal Research Bureau, run by Sam Tyler.
FinCom is a closet in which political hacks hang their bragging rights. They could no more order an investigation than their office pencils. It's a part-time job for individuals who, being less than dynamic, see it in the other members as well,and then adjourn.

[Former Bostonian]

The Phoenix article claims that the ISB are of Saudi heritage. They, and by they I mean MAS, tend to be Egyptian, Moroccan, Jordanian, Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian. I never met a Saudi when I lived in Boston and worked between the different Muslim community groups, including ISB.

[Miss Kelly]

Thanks for the clarification on ethnicities of the ISB/MAS leaders. So Saudi funding (largely from Saudi Dr. Walid Fitaihi), but not necessarily Saudi control?