(Boston Mayor) Menino's mosque

The Phoenix ^ | November 24, 2008 | David S. Bernstein

[Prospero]

Most locals concede that getting anything of substance accomplished in Boston is a Herculean task. Residents have all but embraced the principle of civic inaction with a perverse kind of local pride. In the end, who you know is probably more important than what you are trying to do. And there is no doubt that little is accomplished without the approval and support of the mayor, Thomas M. Menino.

So it is with the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) near the intersection of Tremont Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Better known as the Roxbury mosque, the ISBCC has been in the works for more than 20 years. A few weeks ago it finally opened its doors for prayer — five years late, millions over budget, and still far from complete.

While the story of the building of the Roxbury mosque may not be worthy of a Hollywood epic, it does contain the stuff of a good television drama: community intrigue, religious conflict, media controversy, foreign money, suspicions of extremist ties, and once-cocksure public officials who have since retreated into a zone of silence.

[Prospero]

Not in the mood to "close an important chapter," or to "celebrate" the Boston bomber crisis? Here's more Backstory, from local hipster liberal source, but with likely required information for those determined to understand the fuller context, and who are not ready to hit the snooze button and roll over again, as the president suggests, just yet...

[allendale]

The Democrat Party is controlled by politically correct agitated wimps. Wherever they have power, bizarre policy and poor outcomes have occurred at every level.

[Uncle Chip]

Mayor Menino, in a fit of multicultural ecumenicalism, approved the sale of city-owned land to the mosque for the bargain basement — and still controversial — price of $175,000, plus the promise of in-kind services, including upkeep of nearby parks.

The predictable uproar that arose in the wake of not only selling land well below market rates, but also selling it to a religious institution in contravention of the supposed separation of church and state, was supposed to be muffled by making the complex available for community use. But oops — that never happened.

.......................

Originally intended to minister to an urban congregation of African-American Muslims, the mosque project was turned over by the city, with no fanfare and little notice, to the control of suburban-based Muslims of largely Saudi Arabian heritage

The Saudi connection that the FBI will be instructed to ignore.

[Liz]

[oldplayer]

Long, but informative article. It is an indictment against just how screwed up corrupt liberal government (redundant, I know)does its deeds. Anti-American to the core.

Oldplayer

[Fitzy_888]

Pat Condell: I’m offended by Islam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxlO7DLC6p8&sns=em

[Peter Libra]

Thanks for this post. It certainly deserves more than a fleeting glimpse. What impelled me to post is the comments made four years ago, following the original article. They are very diverse and some are filled with venom against any one who dares question the logistics of the mosque.

In reading those comments, the word irony comes to mind. Are people aware of their knee jerk reaction to anything that seems to be negative about a mosque?