The Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) has charged supporters of Israel with defamation and conspiring to violate its civil rights in a lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court. Yesterday's Boston Jewish Advocate reported on recent developments. The suit was originally filed in May against the Boston Herald and Fox 25 News. This week, ISB added as defendants Anna Kolodner who is director of education of the David Project, as well as author and lecturer Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project, Steven Cohen and Dennis Hale of the group Citizens for Peace and Tolerance and William Sapers. The suit charges that defendants conspired in "a concerted, well-coordinated effort to deprive the Plaintiffs, who are members of the Boston area Muslim community, of their basic rights of free association and the free exercise of religion." The 58-page complaint alleges an elaborate web of connections between the defendants, all aimed at undermining the ISB’s $22 million mosque and cultural center project under construction in Roxbury.
Jeffrey Robbins who is representing the David Project said that the concerns raised in articles by the Herald and shared by members of the David Project alleging connections between ISB officials and extremist Islamic groups were legitimate causes for investigation. "You might have hoped that the Islamic Society, when they received these questions, would have sought to answer them. But instead the course chosen was to try and intimidate those who ask, which in itself speaks volumes about what this is about."
