9/11 ghost divides Boston over mosque

Jewish leaders charge that former and current officials in the Islamic Society of Boston, which is building the 70,000-sq- ft mosque, are linked to terrorist groups and have failed to distance themselves from radical Islam and anti-Jewish statements.

The Islamic Society denies any connection to terrorism and considers itself victimised by a campaign to taint the mosque with accusations of ties to radical teachings. The society says it has repeatedly distanced itself from anti-Jewish remarks by some of its leaders.

Among Jewish concerns is whether a former Islamic Society trustee — outspoken Egyptian Sunni cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi — praised Hamas and Hizbollah, which the US State Department regards as terrorist organisations.

‘‘There is a great deal of anxiety,’’ said Larry Lowenthal, executive director of the American Jewish Committee’s chapter in Boston, whose Jewish population of about 240,000 is the fifth largest of US Cities.

‘‘The distance that I think has to be established between these current leaders and their colleagues who have made troubling statements… that distance has to be clearly distinct and established,’’ he added.

‘‘Unfortunately, I see the Boston case as indicative of a growing trend in anti-Muslim rhetoric that has grown after 9/11,’’ said Arsalan Iftikhar, legal director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest American Muslim civil rights group.

‘‘It has especially impacted local Muslim communities interms of building their mosques,’’ he said. ‘‘High concentrations of Muslim populations are being given a hard time for just trying to practice their faith.’’

Demographers estimate there are five to six million Muslims in the United States.

Growing rancor and the prospect of a high-profile court battle are frightening would-be donors and choking off funding for the mosque. Opening the red-brick building, which is now about 70 per cent complete, has been delayed indefinitely. –Reuters