E-Mail This Article to a Friend FAITH HEALING Mosque questions mount BY ADAM REILLY

The Islamic Society of Boston has an image problem. Starting last year, the Boston Herald ran a series of investigative stories alleging that individuals previously or currently affiliated with the ISB had radical Islamist ties. Then, at the end of September and the beginning of October, a group calling itself Citizens for Peace and Tolerance held a press conference to draw attention to the Herald’s allegations. The Anti-Defamation League of Boston went public with its failed attempts to convince ISB leadership to repudiate Walid Fitaihi, an ISB trustee who has used harsh anti-Semitic rhetoric in articles written for Arabic-language newspapers. And a Roxbury man filed a lawsuit contending that the City of Boston’s sale of land to the ISB for construction of its new Dudley Square cultural center — which will be the largest mosque in the Northeast — violated the separation of church and state. (Among other things, James Policastro’s suit questions the city’s willingness to part with a parcel of land valued at $401,000 for $175,000 in cash and $272,000 in "in-kind" services, including an Islamic lecture series and library at Roxbury Community College.) All of which puts the lie to the old cliché: there is, apparently, such a thing as bad publicity.

The ISB seemed to recover nicely, however. The organization sent a reassuring letter to Boston mayor Tom Menino. Its representatives also met with the editorial board of the Boston Globe to tell them that the ISB promulgates a moderate, tolerant form of Islam and vigilantly guards against fostering ties with extremists. The Globe, in turn, promptly offered some positive feedback in an editorial titled A MODERATING MOSQUE. The paper lauded the ISB for shifting power from its board of trustees (some of whom live outside the US) to an all-local board of directors led by Yousef Abou-Allaban, a Walpole physician. It called Abou-Allaban’s commitment to "transparency" a positive sign, and approvingly cited the ISB’s decision to distance itself from Fitaihi’s comments. And it praised the ISB’s removal of Fitaihi as treasurer of the organization (though the Globe also panned the decision to retain Fitaihi as a trustee). For his part, Menino — in a separate Globe article titled ISLAMIC GROUP REPUDIATES TRUSTEE’S ANTI-SEMITIC QUOTES — welcomed the ISB’s moves as steps forward.

Now, however, it seems that reports of significant changes at the ISB have been greatly exaggerated. In an interview this week, Abou-Allaban reiterated the ISB’s commitment to a tolerant brand of Islam that values peaceful co-existence with Christians and Jews. But he also said the Globe erred in reporting that Fitaihi had been removed as treasurer. "He was not removed as treasurer — I think it was a mistake," Abou-Allaban told the Phoenix. The misunderstanding may have originated, he said, in the discussion of the power shift from the ISB’s board of trustees to its board of directors. (The trustees still have control of the ISB’s real-estate holdings.) "He has been removed, actually, from the governing body, but everybody has," Abou-Allaban said of Fitaihi and the other trustees. "Probably that should have been a better statement." Has he contacted the Globe to set the record straight? "Unfortunately, I didn’t," Abou-Allaban acknowledged. (We were unable to reach the Globe for comment before going to press.)

Then there’s the matter of the alleged repudiation of Fitaihi’s anti-Semitic written remarks. Judging from Abou-Allaban’s comments, it’s a stretch to say any repudiation actually took place. Fitaihi’s descriptions of Jews — whom he referred to, for example, as "murderers of prophets" — were written at an explosive point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and did not refer to all Jews, Abou-Allaban said. "We’ve had people who are fluent in the Arabic language [look at the passage in question], and they don’t see a problem," he explained. "But we felt the way it was quoted and translated really created this feeling. So we took a stand: we are against the statement as it was quoted. That’s the stand we took." In other words, the ISB has condemned erroneous translations of Fitaihi’s comments. So how about Fitaihi’s comments in the original Arabic? "We are against the statement as it was quoted in the paper," he replied with a chuckle.

Finally, there’s the lingering question of what, exactly, "transparency" means. Critics of the ISB have suggested that, in soliciting funds necessary to complete the $22 million cultural center in Roxbury, the ISB may have received contributions from Saudi Arabian donors eager to spread the austere Wahhabist form of Islam in the United States. Abou-Allaban bristles at this suggestion, and insists that there’s no quid pro quo between the ISB and its donors. Of course, the easiest way to reassure critics that no ISB donors are problematic would be to make donors’ names public. But according to Abou-Allaban, the ISB has a firm ban on publicly divulging donors’ identities. "We always said we would be happy to disclose them to law-enforcement officials, if needed," he said. "But people could go and target these donors. They could become targets for other crazy individuals."

The ISB had planned to hold a press conference this past Monday, October 25, to address the allegations that have been directed against it. According to Abou-Allaban, the date has been pushed back into November to give the society sufficient time to prepare. If and when it takes place, the press conference may clear up the questions that still linger around the ISB. Otherwise, little has changed since the story began snowballing a month ago.