DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - MASSACHUSETTS: THE ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF BOSTON DROPS ITS LAWSUIT

Islamic Society of Boston Drops Lawsuits Against David Project, Concerned Citizens, Boston Herald and Fox, Abandoning All of Its Claims Without Receiving Any Payment

David Project to Continue Public Records Lawsuit to Force Disclosure of
Evidence on Boston Redevelopment Authority-Islamic Society Land Deal

BOSTON, May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The David Project has
announced that the Islamic Society of Boston ("ISB") and its officers have
withdrawn all of their claims against all of the citizens who raised
concerns about the ISB, its funding and its leadership, as well as all of
their claims against the Boston Herald, Fox-TV and the various journalists
whose investigative pieces about the ISB in 2003 and 2004 disclosed
damaging information about the ISB and its controversial land deal with the
Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA"). The ISB and its officers have
abandoned all of their claims against all of the defendants they sued 2
years ago, without payment to the ISB or to any of its officers of any
money whatsoever.

The ISB's decision to drop all of its claims against all of the 17
defendants it sued back in 2005 alleging "defamation" and accusing them of
conspiring to violate its civil rights comes just months after the
defendants -- who included a Muslim cleric, a Christian political science
professor and the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, as well as Boston
civic leader William Sapers and national terrorism expert Steven Emerson --
had begun, through their lawyers, to conduct discovery into the ISB's
financial records, its receipt of millions of dollars in funding from Saudi
Arabian and other Middle Eastern sources, its contributions to certain
organizations and the records of certain of its officers and directors. The
ISB's abandonment of its lawsuits comes only weeks after two of its
original Middle Eastern Trustees, Walid Fitaihi of Saudi Arabia and Ali
Tobah of Egypt, suddenly resigned as Trustees just before they were
required to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts
court hearing the case.

The David Project, whose public records litigation against the BRA
forced the public disclosure of evidence regarding the below-fair-market
land deal between the BRA and the ISB and the role played in that deal of
BRA Deputy Director Muhammed Ali Salaam, will proceed exactly as before
with its litigation, seeking the remainder of the documents presently
withheld by the BRA. That litigation, The David Project v. Boston
Redevelopment Authority, is on file in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.
"We were determined from the beginning to act the way citizens should,
by asking questions about this matter and by refusing to be intimidated
into staying silent," said David Project founder and President Charles
Jacobs, "and we intend to continue as we have before. Indeed, the evidence
that has emerged about the transaction, about the BRA's failure to do due
diligence into those whom it chose to subsidize and about the funding and
the leadership of the organization that received this public subsidy is of
extremely deep concern. That evidence not only vindicates the reporting of
the courageous journalists whose investigative work broke the story back in
2003 and 2004, but validates many times over the concerns expressed by the
good and decent citizens -- Muslims, Christians and Jews -- who refused to
stay silent."

"Those citizens were vilified by the ISB for having had the courage to
speak out", said Jacobs. "The ISB's abandonment of its claims without
payment of one dollar to them, coming as it does as the ISB was ordered to
turn over evidence, speaks more eloquently than anything else could about
the truth of what these citizens said, about the validity of their
concerns, and about the lack of merit to the ISB's allegations that they
had been 'defamed' and had been financially 'damaged'. Above all, the ISB's
ultimate abandonment of its lawsuits speaks eloquently about the importance
of refusing to be bullied and intimidated into silence."

"This has never been about the right of all people to worship, and to
construct houses of worship, which is an important right possessed equally
by all people, warranting great respect," said Jacobs. "What it has been
about is specific evidence about specific leaders of a specific
organization, and about evidence regarding the funding of that organization
and those whom it, in turn, was funding. The threat of Islamic extremism in
the United States and elsewhere is a real one. Many of the most courageous
and forceful individuals speaking out about this threat are themselves
Muslims, and they deserve the support of all of us. The victory we have
achieved in this case is a victory for many, but perhaps especially for
them, as it bolsters and encourages them, and sends a message on their
behalf that intimidation will not work."


Pertinent Links:

1) Islamic Society of Boston Drops Lawsuits Against David Project, Concerned Citizens, Boston Herald and Fox, Abandoning All of Its Claims Without Receiving Any Payment