Mediating the mosque dispute

A group of prominent Christian and Jewish leaders has begun trying to settle quietly a bitter dispute over construction of a mosque in Roxbury that has deeply strained relations between Muslims and Jews in Greater Boston.

The 40-member panel of ministers, priests, rabbis, and laymen has talked with both sides in the battle: a Jewish group that accuses the mosque's developers of anti-Semitic views and terrorist sympathies, and the Muslim group building the mosque, which has sued the Jewish group and several of its allies for defamation and conspiracy.

Each side presented its case to the panel and was told that court was not the place to resolve the dispute, according to participants in the reconciliation effort.

The religious leaders fear that the acrimony and public posturing that have accompanied complex legal maneuvers will poison interreligious relations in the wider community and create resentment that will endure even if the disagreements are resolved in the courts.

A subcommittee met Thursday to plan further steps. Members of the panel include the Rev. Raymond G. Helmick, who has been involved in high-level mediation efforts in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and the Middle East, and Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author of the bestseller, ``Why Bad Things Happen to Good People."

Panel members say they hope to create a more civil environment around the mosque issue and to encourage direct communication between the two sides.

``They are very angry," said Helmick, a Jesuit priest on the theology faculty of Boston College. ``Anger is not a very good basis for conduct or for policy. . . . We are really anxious that this [mosque project] not become a community-destroying thing. There are a lot of people on both sides anxious to see some reconciliation."

Kushner said the mediators would suggest to the two sides that, if they continue their court fight, ``this will not be a matter of somebody winning and somebody losing, but of everybody losing. . . . Victory for one side will just leave the other side aggrieved."

The Islamic Society of Boston, the Cambridge-based organization designated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority to build New England's largest mosque on a 1.9-acre site in Roxbury Crossing, presented its view of the conflict to members of the interreligious center May 11. The David Project, a Jewish leadership center, made its presentation on June 12.

Leaders of the two sides did not respond to calls about the interreligious initiative. Their lawyers said they welcomed any attempt by respected religious leaders to learn the facts of the situation, but both also said that the facts prove their side is right. Both affirmed their willingness to continue the legal battle.

``I was extraordinarily impressed with the leadership represented in this group," said Howard M. Cooper, lead attorney for the Islamic society. ``Leaders from the Jewish community and leaders from the Christian community were very eager to play a constructive role. . . . We are hopeful they will be able to play a constructive role."

Jeffrey S. Robbins, attorney for The David Project, said he was pleased both with the religious leaders' efforts to learn about the case in detail and their intention to help broker a resolution. ``Lawsuits like this pose a danger to any community, particularly one as diverse as Boston," Robbins said.

Rabbi David M. Gordis, president of Hebrew College, said the effort to calm the conflict over the mosque and move toward an out-of-court settlement is a project of the Interreligious Center on Public Life, a group created through unusual collaborations that have developed between the college and Andover Newton Theological School in the four years since they began operating from a single campus in Newton.

Jewish and Christian scholars and clergy at the two schools have long tried to foster good relations with the Muslim community, Gordis said, ``and then this whole sad situation [over the mosque project] came to the fore and threatened the positive relations that were developing."

The Rev. Nick Carter, president of Andover Newton, said the mandate of the interreligious center is ``to explore the resources of the three Abrahamic faiths for addressing the most difficult issues of our time."

``This is a difficult issue of our time, and we have engaged it," he said.

Helmick and Kushner said the next stage of the interreligious center's effort will probably be to hold a number of small, closed-door meetings with Jewish and Muslim communal leaders.

Experience in numerous international trouble spots teaches that ``when people are very isolated from each other, they are very likely to be curious about what makes the others tick," Helmick said. ``If they start to learn what is really going on the other side, even secondhand, sometimes that makes them more inclined to talk directly.

``Once you understand what is going on," he said, ``there is a menu of options that you can spread out. It is not my business to pick, but to let people understand there are options."

Charles A. Radin can be reached at radin@globe.com.

(Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in Tuesday's City & Region section about a group of prominent Christian and Jewish leaders trying to mediate a dispute over a proposed mosque in Roxbury misstated the title of a book written by one of the leaders. Rabbi Harold S. Kushner wrote ``When Bad Things Happen to Good People.")