The controversy over the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury Crossing has posed one of the biggest challenges to interfaith relations in Boston in years, and the tension was readily on display during the Friday morning opening ceremonies for the new mosque.
Inside the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College, mosque backers hosted an interfaith breakfast whose honorary cochairmen included an Episcopal bishop, a Catholic priest, and the heads of the Black Ministerial Alliance, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization.
Critics have accused the mosque’s backers of being extremists and radicals, but much of the mainstream Christian leadership, as well as the political leadership, in Boston appears to have rejected the allegations. On the way in to the breakfast, I encountered Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, the Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts and asked him why he was there. He noted that about 400 Muslims who work downtown regularly worship in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and said he wanted “to honor them,” he also called the new mosque “much needed for interfaith dialogue.”
Harvard Divinity School dean William A. Graham, a scholar of Islam, gave the keynote speech and sharply rebuked the mosque’s critics, saying, “the mindless attacks in recent years from so-called religious people will soon be forgotten as the center proves itself a center for good people.”
Governor Deval Patrick had to cancel his appearance at the breakfast at the last minute to attend the funeral of a soldier from Massachusetts who was killed in Afghanistan, but sent along a video greeting that made his support for the project quite clear. Patrick opened his taped remarks with the Arabic phrase, “Assalamu alaikum,” meaning “peace be upon you” and called the mosque opening a “wonderful milestone.”
Later, at the ribbon-cutting, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who was greeted as a hero, told the crowd, “I am so proud to stand with all of you.”
A string of local religious leaders offered greetings at the breakfast. Among them, was the Rev. Raymond Helmick, a Jesuit priest who teaches theology at Boston College, who said, “You’ve had a very rough ride here in Boston, where you were confronted by a great deal of bigotry and rejection.” Helmick compared the response to the mosque to the bigotry that previously greeted Catholics and Jews in America, and he called the mosque a “beautiful monument.” Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s liaison to the Muslim and Jewish communities, the Rev. David C. Michael, also attended.
Interestingly, the mosque chose one of its more controversial trustees, Walid Fitaihi, to recite from the Koran. Fitaihi has been a lightning rod for criticism because he wrote an essay in an Arabic-language newspaper calling Jews “murderers of prophets.” He has since apologized, and the mosque said it had reprimanded him.
Much of the criticism and suspicion of mosque leaders has come from the Jewish community, although the new organization criticizing the mosque, called Americans for Peace and Tolerance, is led by an Episcopal layman, a Muslim scholar, and a Jewish activist. None of the major Jewish organizations in Boston were represented at the interfaith breakfast or the ribbon-cutting that followed, but there were Jews present, including two Hebrew College officials who agreed to be named as honorary cochairmen of the inaugural breakfast. In fact, there may have been more Jews at the interfaith breakfast than at the protest outside the mosque, where about a dozen people gathered holding signs reading “Prayer, Yes. Extremism, No!”
“At long last, Islam has taken its rightful place as a full partner on the American scene,” said Rabbi Sanford Seltzer of Hebrew College, who spoke at the breakfast. And Enid Shapiro, who attended the breakfast, e-mailed me to say, “I was very disappointed that representatives of the established Jewish Community (CJP) were not represented. The demonstration outside the Reggie Lewis Center was appalling and certainly did not represent me or in my mind the Jewish Community.”
Later, at the ribbon cutting, I ran into Rabbi Moshe Waldoks of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, who told me he counted six local rabbis at the celebration. “For those in the Jewish community who have been involved in dialogue with the Muslim community, we celebrate what our cousins are doing by establishing this symbol in the community for many years to come.”
Michael Ross, the first Jewish president of the City Council, greeted celebrants at the ribbon-cutting in Arabic and Hebrew and said he was present “to honor this very important day.”
Several Jewish community leaders I contacted for comment about the mosque opening simply declined to speak; many have privately made it clear they’re uneasy about the allegations but reluctant to join in the criticism.
The mosque’s critics have argued that interfaith leaders, as well as the news media and the political leadership, have allowed political correctness and an emphasis on tolerance to blind them to legitimate concerns about the mosque, and they cite as evidence for their concern offensive remarks by mosque backers and a mosque speaker, as well as the high number of Saudi contributors to the mosque project.
“We have let sensitivity trump truth,” said Charles Jacobs, the leading critic of the mosque, while Boston College political science professor Dennis Hale, said, “Our political leaders are failing us by embracing the radical leadership.”