At the Boston Globe, Charles Jacobs of the David Project has a letter to the editor about the Islamic Society of Boston and their connections to extremists, and the legal harassment they’re using to try to shut down their critics: Mosque on hold.

THE STORY on the lawsuit filed against us by the Islamic Society of Boston (“Praised by beacon, mosque project stalls amid rancor,” Page A1, Dec. 18) did mention that the society’s founder, Abdurahman Alamoudi, raised money for Al Qaeda and is in jail (in connection with a plot to assassinate a Saudi prince). But the story omitted even more worrisome facts.

The society’s leaders have praised suicide bombers and called for attacks on Americans. A website in Qatar associated with society trustee Yousef al-Qaradawi, an internationally known leader of extremists, calls for gays to be executed by either stoning or burning. Al-Qaradawi has been barred from the United States. The society website praises as “very good” a book that refers to the women’s liberation movement as a “Jewish plot” to corrupt society and argues that wife-beating is at times necessary. The library of the society’s current Cambridge mosque contains literature containing vitriol directed against Christians, Jews, and Americans. While mosque spokesmen speak of “dialogue” and tolerance, Qaradawi says “there is no dialogue between us [and the Jews] except by the sword and the rifle.’ ”

As citizens, we were concerned. We wanted the society to answer simple questions, questions that it took pains to avoid answering. As a result, we have been sued by the society and forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars to defend ourselves. This is not a case about Boston bigots with discriminatory suspicions. It is a case of citizens rightfully worried that their city might be importing — and subsidizing — hatred and misogyny with links to terror.

CHARLES JACOBS
President
The David Project
Boston