DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - MASSACHUSETTS: BOSTON REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITIES FUNKY DEALINGS WITH MOSLEMS & THEIR ACCESS TO CHEAP LAND FOR THEIR MOSQUE

BRA seeks to block mosque questions
Urges court to halt subpoenas
By Charles A. Radin and Matt Viser,
Globe Staff
January 23, 2007

The Boston Redevelopment Authority went to court yesterday to prevent four of its key officials from having to answer questions under oath about a deal in which a city-owned parcel of land was transferred to an Islamic group for construction of a mosque.

Lawyers for the city's most powerful agency argued in Suffolk Superior Court that critics of the mosque project at Roxbury Crossing had no right to depose the BRA officials about the project or obtain more documents than those already provided to the David Project, a nonprofit Jewish advocacy group.

Leaders of the David Project have questioned the BRA's deal with the Islamic Society of Boston, under which the society is building the mosque. They have also suggested the BRA is trying to keep details of the arrangement secret by blocking the release of public information.

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The David Project and other organizations and individuals also have questioned the suitability of the Islamic Society to run what would be New England's largest mosque.

They are being sued for defamation by the society, which accuses them of engaging in a conspiracy to block construction of the mosque.

Lewis said the BRA has thousands of documents stored "willy-nilly" in boxes that are not labeled, a storage method he said was intended to keep the documents from being easily accessible and to increase the costs of access.

He said the questioning of the subpoenaed BRA officials will enable the David Project to understand what documents are available, and in what form, without going through massive and expensive searches of what the BRA says are more than 2,000 boxes of unindexed documents and thousands of e-mails the BRA says cannot be searched easily.

The subpoenaed BRA officials include Robert Tumposky, deputy director for management information systems; Muhammad Ali-Salaam, deputy director for special projects; Patraap Patrose, deputy director for urban design; and Kevin Morrison, the agency's general counsel.
Ali-Salaam is a central figure in the battle over the mosque because of his long association with the project and his trip to the Middle East with members of the Islamic Society leadership in 2000, during which, according to an Islamic Society publication, he helped raise funds for the project.

He also has been subpoenaed to give a deposition on Feb. 7 in a suit brought against the mosque deal by Boston resident James C. Policastro, who asserts that the arrangement between the BRA and the society violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

Morrison has been questioned once by David Project lawyers, who cited his answers in court yesterday in urging Judge Van Gestel not to block the depositions and to order the BRA to take steps to protect documents and e-mails relevant to the mosque deal.

Jeffrey Robbins, general counsel for the David Project, said that Morrison's deposition to date shows that the BRA has made no serious effort to comply with public-records laws.

Samuel Tyler -- president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded watchdog group -- said that, in general, the BRA does not make information on development deals readily available. "Information from the BRA, particularly financial information, is very limited," he said.

Previous stories:

City of Boston, Islamic Society Pressed on Fundraising Trips to Middle East by The David Project

BOSTON, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The David Project, a non-profit educational initiative, today called upon the Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA") and the Islamic Society of Boston to reveal who paid the expenses for BRA Deputy Director Muhammad Ali-Salaam's fundraising trips to the Middle East. Mr. Ali-Salaam, a public employee, was asked by the Islamic Society to travel to the Middle East to help it raise funds for the Islamic Society's mosque project. Deputy Director Ali-Salaam, the official responsible for overseeing the BRA's sale of publicly-owned property to the Islamic Society for construction of a mosque and Islamic cultural center, has also been identified by the Islamic Society as one of its principal fundraisers in the Middle East for the mosque project, even as he was managing the sale of the public asset to the Islamic Society at a price dramatically below fair market value."The public integrity and conflict-of-interest concerns raised by Mr. Ali-Salaam's apparent dual role in this transaction are obvious," said Charles Jacobs, President of The David Project. "At least one of Mr. Ali-Salaam's trips for the Islamic Society came shortly before the Islamic Society was permitted to acquire public land from the BRA at a 91 percent discount from market value. The refusal by either the BRA or the Islamic Society to address these concerns is extremely disturbing to anyone who cares about good government and the accountability of public servants and public agencies."

Public records show that in December 1999 the Islamic Society of Boston paid Mr. Ali-Salaam's airfare for a 10-day trip to the United Arab Emirates to help it raise money to purchase the public property from the BRA and to develop the mosque on the property. However, the BRA and the Islamic Society have refused to disclose who paid for the other costs of the trip, including hotels, restaurants, entertainment and other expenses. The BRA and Islamic Society have also refused to identify who hosted the BRA official during this trip and the Middle Eastern donors with whom he met for the purpose of soliciting funds on behalf of the Islamic Society.

"A 10-day stay in the United Arab Emirates is not inexpensive," said Jacobs of the David Project. "The costs of hotels, restaurants and other expenses were likely in the thousands of dollars. The public is entitled to know who paid for the BRA Deputy Director to travel to the Middle East to raise money for the Islamic Society. The public is also entitled to know who the Middle Eastern donors are from whom the BRA Deputy Director solicited money on behalf of the Islamic Society while on the public payroll."

Mr. Ali-Salaam was successful in his attempts to raise funds for the Islamic Society, according to the newsletters published by the Society in early 2000. According to these newsletters, $3 million was raised for the mosque project. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Ali-Salaam stated in writing that the estimated fair market value of the public land sought by the Islamic Society was $2,010,966, but the BRA agreed to treat the estimate as only $401,000. The BRA then proceeded to deed the property to the Islamic Society for only $175,000 in actual funds -- representing a 91 percent discount off the fair market value of the property. The BRA provided the discount to the Islamic Society even though the Society owned millions of dollars worth of properties encumbrance-free in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and even though the Society represented to the BRA that it could raise $24 million, principally in overseas funds, to construct the mosque on the land.

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Group opposed to Roxbury mosque sues BRA for documents
By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff

The David Project, a non profit Jewish advocacy organization, yesterday charged in Suffolk Superior Court that the Boston Redevelopment Authority is withholding public records related to the authority's sale of land to the Islamic Society of Boston for construction of a mosque.

The organization asked the court to order the BRA to surrender the documents, in particular copies of e-mails written and received by BRA deputy director Mohammad Ali-Salaam regarding the Roxbury land deal, and documents relating to travel by Ali-Salaam to the Middle East on behalf of the mosque project.

Susan Elsbree, spokeswoman for the redevelopment authority, said the authority is ``confident the court will find that the BRA has complied with all public records requests."

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Pertinent Links:

1) BRA seeks to block mosque questions

Previous Story Links:

1) City of Boston, Islamic Society Pressed on Fundraising Trips to Middle East by The David Project

2) Group opposed to Roxbury mosque sues BRA for documents