Source: The Boston Globe
On January 5, 2006 The Boston Globe reported, "Controversy over the mosque being built by the Islamic Society of Boston has done serious damage to relations between Muslims and Jews in Boston, members of both groups say. The Islamic Society and Jewish community leaders have suspended meetings to discuss their differences, and their stalemate has now been blazoned across the pages of the Jewish Advocate, the newspaper of the local Jewish community. A full-page advertisement to be published in that paper today calls a defamation suit filed by the Islamic Society an attempt 'to stifle public discussion and dissuade others from asking legitimate and important questions.' The ad was a response to an earlier one paid for by the Islamic Society, which called on Jewish leaders to stand with them against intolerance... At the heart of the impasse are assertions that former and current officials of the Islamic Society of Boston had connections to terrorist groups and made anti-Jewish statements. The Islamic Society has denied any connection to terrorism, and officials say they have repeatedly distanced themselves from anti-Jewish remarks by some of the society's leaders."