New In The Phoenix -- The Roxbury Mosque

Published Nov 19 2008, 03:01 PM by David S. Bernstein

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix, I have a lengthy feature about the new mosque (technically the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center) being built in Lower Roxbury. It has finally opened for daily prayers, but that is not the end of the 20-year saga of getting it built; the facility is still far from complete.

Why has it been so impossible to accomplish? And what does its future look like?

Read the story here: Menino's Mosque: The bizarre story behind the construction of Boston's most controversial building

Or go here for a jumping-off point to the article and its various sidebars, including several exclusively on the web.

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2 Comments

Michael Pahre said:

Hey, great series!

I think you are not just overly-generous towards the BRA, but also fail to place blame where it typically lies, with your line:

"The failure of the mosque project to conform to its original plans represents a broken promise between the mosque developers and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA)."

The BRA promised the community benefits in exchange for approval, saying, yet again, "trust us, we're the BRA, we're on your side." And then they don't hold the developer to the benefits.

Same story repeated again and again in every neighborhood of the city.

You should have written, "...a broken promise by the mosque developers and BRA with the community."

P.S. Love the photo accompanying the "Gay Hatred" piece:

thephoenix.com/.../72382-Free-pass-on-gay-hatred

November 20, 2008 12:14 AM
Henry63 said:

David, people like you are a large part of the problem bent on the continuance of hatred that fueled these articles. Everything that you touched up upon has been a matter of print already and the subject of a lawsuit that has long been dropped. Let be realistic here now that the controversy has died down you are pursuing your own motifs and the lengthy recycled article is nothing more than a mask for your own personal and hateful contempt for Muslim-Americans in the area. It seems that people like you will do anything to insight suspicion about this growing community to satisfy your own hatred. Misery loves company and in this case yours is as clear as a glass. Bottom line no matter how many inconsistencies and lies you want to recycle and publish, there are many in your article, the land was legally purchased bottom line. Any attempt to prove that it wasn't only displays one thing, your Jewish-hate-filled motifs against Muslim Americans. Similarly the people that were outspoken about it (FOX, David Project, Boston Herals) could care less about the land in Roxbury. If that were the case they could have done the community good by cleaning it up in the first place but they didn't. The ISBCC did the area a favor buy making an eye sore a symbol of revival and evidence of a growing American community.

November 21, 2008 12:48 PM