Tuesday, July 4, 2006
An "interfaith panel" has stepped in to try to mediate the legal disputes over the construction of the embattled Boston Mosque.
Boston Globe: Mediating the mosque dispute
The 40-member panel of ministers, priests, rabbis, and laymen has talked with both sides in the battle: a Jewish group that accuses the mosque's developers of anti-Semitic views and terrorist sympathies, and the Muslim group building the mosque, which has sued the Jewish group and several of its allies for defamation and conspiracy.
Each side presented its case to the panel and was told that court was not the place to resolve the dispute, according to participants in the reconciliation effort.
The religious leaders fear that the acrimony and public posturing that have accompanied complex legal maneuvers will poison interreligious relations in the wider community and create resentment that will endure even if the disagreements are resolved in the courts.
A subcommittee met Thursday to plan further steps. Members of the panel include the Rev. Raymond G. Helmick, who has been involved in high-level mediation efforts in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and the Middle East, and Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author of the bestseller, ``Why Bad Things Happen to Good People."
Panel members say they hope to create a more civil environment around the mosque issue and to encourage direct communication between the two sides.
``They are very angry," said Helmick, a Jesuit priest on the theology faculty of Boston College. ``Anger is not a very good basis for conduct or for policy. . . . We are really anxious that this [mosque project] not become a community-destroying thing. There are a lot of people on both sides anxious to see some reconciliation."
Kushner said the mediators would suggest to the two sides that, if they continue their court fight, ``this will not be a matter of somebody winning and somebody losing, but of everybody losing. . . . Victory for one side will just leave the other side aggrieved."
The Islamic Society of Boston, the Cambridge-based organization designated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority to build New England's largest mosque on a 1.9-acre site in Roxbury Crossing, presented its view of the conflict to members of the interreligious center May 11. The David Project, a Jewish leadership center, made its presentation on June 12...
It frankly sounds like a lot of feel-good, "let's keep talking," bullshit that will lead nowhere to me. But you never know.
it sure does sound like the mediators have a vision of things deeply informed by liberal cognitive egocentrism. the idea that
may have worked in other conflicts Mr. Helmick has been involved in, but i really doubt this one will be so easily soluble. as far as i know, this is not a matter of an innocent misunderstanding that a little light shed on the unintended darkness can dissipate.on the other hand, the mediators are right -- this can be the source of serious resentment, which is why the majority of both the jewish and chrisitan community have shied away from any challenge. it's very much like the british case where Blair says that the terrorism coming out of muslims is an issue that the moderate muslims have to attack, and the "moderate" muslims attack him for insulting them and not doing enough to make them happy.
i really don't know what to suggest here. it's an almost guaranteed victory for the demopaths.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
One side is trying to prevent a religious group from building a place of worship, on dubious grounds that some member once had some relationship to a terrorist.
The other side is trying to chill public debate by filing SLAPP lawsuits.
Anything that makes both sides step back is welcome.
"...some member once had some relationship to a terrorist"
Not hardly. Several members of the Board of Directors had relationships with terrorists, and one of the Board members is barred from entering the U.S. The website of the Citizens for Peace and Tolerance have that info.
http://www.hatefreeamerica.com/
Not to mention that Dr. Ahmed Mansour (himself sued by the ISB) heard sermons at the ISB mosque in Cambridge that were preaching hatred. Not to mention who the ISB has within the past 2 years invited radical Islamists to talk, including Salah Soltan and Siraj Wahaj. There's more than enough to be concerned about with the ISB and the planned mosque.
This is not a simple misunderstanding between two Abrahamic faiths. There aren't two sides. There's a lot more going on with the ISB, and this attempted mediation doesn't cover the half of it.
I blogged about this here:
http://misskelly.typepad.com/miss_kelly_/2006/03/isb_lawsuit_upd.html
I don't know who initiated this, but both sides almost have to participate in this sort of touchy-feely nonsense, or they'll look bad. The premise of the mediation is simplistic. I don't expect much to come out of it, except PR for some organizations.