Although Ellison's ancestors have lived in the US since the eighteenth century, Goode cited the Minnesotan’s election to demand that immigration of Muslims be slowed or stopped. A bunch of politicians and pundits contributed their own unsubtle statements that Muslims have no place in America. Muslims seem somewhat exotic, and therefore easy to stereotype. Dumping on Muslims is fun, cheap, and easy.

Unwillingness to confront such naked Islamophobic incitement recalls the development of modern anti-Semitism in Central and Eastern Europe. Americans must ask ourselves whether Islamophobia is our New Anti-Semitism.

An unabashed Islamophobe, Robert Spencer, recently visited Temple Emanuel in Newton at the invitation of the synagogue’s Israel Action Forum, to assist in the ongoing defamation of the Islamic Society of Boston.

Robert Spencer Islamic Society of Boston Spencer's talk

Spencer has strong associations with the Neocon gang, notorious for pushing the invasion of Iraq. He wrote a book, Islam Unveiled, whose title echoes that of Johann Eisenmenger’s 1700 anti-Jewish classic, Judaism Unmasked.

Other anti-Islamic scribblers have cast Muslim-owned and managed businesses in the role of sinister malevolent entities—just as earlier anti-Semites used to depict Jewish-owned and managed financial institutions like the Rothschild or Bleichroeder banks as forces of darkness and exploitation.

Jeff Jacoby Globe Jan. 10

Thus the ISB is under grave suspicion because it took out a mortgage with the Islamic Development Bank.

Liberal bigotry

Like classical anti-Semites, today’s Islamophobes accuse a ruthless race enemy of using the West’s tolerance and freedom to undermine its civilization.

This theme appeared in the Boston Globe’s January 9 front page story, “As a mosque rises, a dispute flares in Berlin.” The reporter depicted Islamophobia as a virtuous activity, and cited a Syrian-born Arab studies specialist as saying, “Europeans have used tolerance as the excuse for not confronting intolerance.”

Berlin article

Traditional German bigotry is thus redefined as a refreshing new willingness to “confront intolerance”—without acknowledging the history of decades of anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish hatred in Germany.

The Globe’s regular readers must have linked the January 9 Berlin mosque story to the paper’s coverage of “the Roxbury mosque conflict.” In fact, on January 10, there was another article on the Roxbury mosque.

This is the last work of one of the great architects of the 20th century. The late Hasan Fathi, created a Bostonian look for the Roxbury mosque. [rendering courtesy ISB]

The Globe's coverage of Muslims provides a continuous stream of poisonous accusations and insinuations provided by pro-Israel advocacy organizations like the David Project and its affiliates.

The David Project public filings

We have looked at their public filings, and the David Project appears to be at the center of a network of connections among power brokers in Boston-area academia, in the Massachusetts Republican and Democratic parties, as well as in the local real estate and financial industries.

Like other US newspapers, the Boston Globe allows journalists to repeat talking points and press releases circulated on the Internet by people like David Project founder Charles Jacobs, rather than doing serious investigative journalism—or at least fact-checking.

As the cost of the Israeli-American alliance is increasingly questioned, groups like the David Project are finding it harder to control discourse and win debates about US Middle East policy. It makes sense for them to marginalize, demonize, and delegitimize Muslims in order to deflect criticism of Israel.

The debate on foreign policy does not have any relevance to the Roxbury mosque controversy except that Charles Jacobs is coordinating various pro-Israel organizations to defame American Muslims.

On January 10, Boston Globe reporters Charles Radin and Stephen Kurjian again raised questions about the funding of the Roxbury mosque project. The funding of the Roxbury mosque is not exactly hot news; it's old news. The Globe has been headlining this story for more than two years.

Banking on ignorance

The Islamic Society of Boston has obtained a loan to finance construction of its Islamic center just as many Americans do when they build their homes. The ISB is accused of [gasp!] getting a mortgage.

The ISB’s detractors are counting on the public to be unaware that banks are multinational corporations. When you get a loan from Citibank, you should know that a lot of that bank’s money comes from the United Arab Emirates. Such cash flow is normal.

The ISB is limited in its choice of mortgage providers because it must conform to Islamic law which forbids, for example, charging interest on loans.

For a brief discussion of Islamic banking institutions see islamic banking

The ISB has submitted their financial information to the Globe—and to the David Project—but the newspaper declined to print the clarifications. An apology would have been in order. The Globe preferred to create a fake story even while it had the facts.

Why? Just take a look at the court filings and personal defamation suits directed at the David Project and its friends. Subverting the news media is an important aspect of the David Project’s self-declared mission (“diminishing the impact of Israel’s detractors”).

There is a lot of evidence that various news media, including the Boston Herald and Fox News, have collaborated with the David Project’s campaign to make us fear the mosque.

We have followed the demonization of the Islamic Society of Boston by the David Project, Charles Jacobs, and his motley crew of anti-Arab anti-Muslim true believers. We are tired of the harassment of our friends and neighbors by malicious know-nothings and bigots.

The ISB is an apolitical faith organization, whose members are very nice people as anyone can learn by attending one of the ISB’s public dinners.

The ISB has never made a single public statement on Israel. The members of the ISB, its directors and staff are completely law-abiding American citizens. Unlike many Boston area synagogues and Jewish community centers, the ISB flies only one flag, that of the United States.

If American political leaders do not have the courage to stand up to those that try to normalize Islamophobia, our democracy will be lost because the enemies of freedom will not stop with American Muslims.

We believe that Israel advocates put all Americans at risk of financial disaster or worse both by suppressing public debate on important issues and also by manipulating America into waging pointless wars instead of engaging in a civil dialogue on matters of worldwide concern like Israeli oppression and ethnic cleansing of the native population of Palestine.

Conspiracy to deprive American citizens of their Constitutional rights to assemble freely to worship is a federal crime. The Boston news media and the FBI should be investigating the David Project, not the ISB.

This just in (from the Bridge staff)

"Islam urged to accept Enlightenment—EU official backs training for imams," Paul Taylor, Reuters, Boston Globe, January 12

This article features the comments of German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, telling reporters that the problem with Muslims is: "Part of the Islamic world has yet to implement the Enlightenment."

He admitted however that "We should not be arrogant… Christianity waged terrible conflicts for a few centuries until the process of Enlightenment took root...."

Background and dissenting view were lacking the Globe article, so here goes.

The Enlightenment to which the German police minister was referring took place among European philosophers in the 1700s, who wanted scientific reason to take the place of tradition and religious dogma in human affairs.

The two centuries following the Enlightenment were one long love feast for the West, and Germany in particular. If these people are going to settle among us Christian folk, they are going to have to behave themselves like twentieth-century Europeans.

Just kidding, OK?