Muslim reformer facing lawsuit—from co-religionists

When Ahmed Mansour learned that a lawsuit had been filed against him by the Islamic Society of Boston, he had one urgent question: "Will they put me in jail?"

The answer was no — in America, people don't go to prison for publicly expressing their views, or for encouraging the government to review questionable public transactions. But Mansour had good reason to worry. He had learned the hard way that Muslim reformers who speak out against Islamist fanaticism and religious dictatorship can indeed end up in prison — or worse. It had happened to him in his native Egypt, which he fled in 2001 after receiving death threats. He was grateful that the United States had granted him asylum, enabling him to go on promoting his vision of a progressive Islam in which human rights and democratic values would be protected. But would he now have to fight in America the same kind of persecution he experienced in Egypt?

Mansour is just one of many people and organizations being sued for defamation by the Islamic Society of Boston, which accuses them all of conspiring to deny freedom of worship to Boston-area Muslims. In fact, the defendants — who include journalists, a terrorism expert, and the founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group, plus the Episcopalian lay minister and the Jewish attorney who together with Mansour formed the interfaith Citizens for Peace and Tolerance in 2004 — appear to be guilty of nothing more than voicing concerns about the ISB's construction of a large mosque in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury.

More than a few unsettling questions have been raised about the ISB and its mosque project. For example:

"But would he now have to fight in America the same kind of persecution he experienced in Egypt?"

Well...he'll probably have his head sawed off by the Religion of Piece, Love and Tolorance crowd for advocating peace, love and tolorance.

That's probably not what the author meant by that question though.

Islam must be crushed. Islam must not be recognized as a religion any more than Nazism was. All Mosques should be declared delinquent of taxes owed retroactive from the day they were built. ANY gathering of Islamics should be PROSECUTED as CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MASS MURDER, found guilty and deported. Country by country, state by state, town by town, foot by foot, inch by inch, the Islamic cancer must be eradicated.

ACT NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE:
Dear Representative:
As registered voters and tax paying legal residents of the United States of America we urge you to provide us with your utmost commitment to providing the citizens of our nation protection of our rights, life, liberties, property, and our hallowed Constitution.

We are under attack by an ideology that demands our demise. We will not stand quiet in the eve of our destruction. And we certainly will not tolerate our elected representative to lead us to the slaughter.

We urge you to introduce a referendum on whether Islam is a religion, or an ideology.

The advantages and protections of tax-exempt status afforded to a religion should not be extended to an ideology determined to replace our Constitution with the Koran.

In spite of what the media reports, the American public is well aware that that the war on terrorism is in reality, our defensive efforts against the Islamic offensive. We are not being provided with the defense of both our rights and the sanctity of our Constitution as long as we allow the enemy to operate freely with in our borders.

Americans are concerned and are in extreme jeopardy and demand you perform your duties as both an American and elected representative.

In Earnest,

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