Islamic Society drops lawsuit

The Islamic Society of Boston agreed yesterday to drop a lawsuit alleging that 16 individuals and entities, including The Boston Herald and Fox 25-TV , conspired to publish and broadcast false and defamatory statements about the society.

Both sides in the lawsuit claimed victory yesterday, the Islamic Society because the deal also brought to an end a related lawsuit that threatened construction of a mosque in Roxbury and the defendants because the Islamic Society never collected a penny for alleged libel from the media organizations and a Jewish group.

A lawyer for the society hailed the dismissals , saying they meant the local Muslim group would now be able to go forward with construction of the mosque.

"Now is the time to move on," lawyer Albert L. Farrah Jr. said.

The defamation suit, filed in 2005, asserted that news outlets and Jewish advocacy groups orchestrated a media campaign to halt mosque construction, falsely linking Islamic society leaders with terrorist groups. The yearslong legal battle damaged relations between local Muslim and Jewish communities and prompted calls for mediation from other religious leaders. It was unclear whether yesterday's dismissals will help mend the rift.

The Herald and The David Project, a Jewish advocacy group also named as a defendant in the suit, asserted that the Islamic Society dropped its case because the lawsuit would have unearthed documents supporting news reports about mosque financing and links to suspected terrorist organizations.

"The ISB's abandonment of all of its claims against citizens and against journalists for not one dollar speaks volumes about the validity of the concerns expressed by the citizens and the accuracy of the articles published about the ISB," said Jeffrey Robbins , a lawyer for The Da vid Project.

Herald Publisher Patrick J. Purcell issued a statement saying the newspaper's coverage was "detailed, well-researched, quality journalism."

"The First Amendment protects the rights of journalists to gather and disseminate news and today's dismissal of the lawsuits brought by the Islamic Society of Boston and others reinforces our conviction that we must stand fast against any erosion of the inherent right to report on important issues," Purcell said in the statement.

Calls seeking comment from Fox 25-TV were not returned last night.

The Islamic Society said its decision hinged only on the other lawsuit, which was brought in 2004 by Mission Hill resident James Policastro. The suit alleged that the Boston Redevelopment Authority violated separation of church and state when it sold land significantly below assessed value to the Islamic Society to build a mosque.

A Suffolk Superior Court judge dismissed the suit in February, saying Policastro did not have legal standing to challenge the sale because he did not file his lawsuit within 30 days of the sale, which the Legislature set as the deadline for appealing the BRA's decisions. But Policastro had filed a notice saying he intended to appeal that decision. He signed an agreement yesterday giving up his right to appeal.

"The dismissal of the Policastro suit was an integral part of the settlement agreement reached yesterday," said Farrah, the society's lawyer.

There is still one active lawsuit related to the project.

The David Project is suing the BRA for failing to turn over all the agency's documents related to the land sale. The BRA so far has released several thousand pages of documents, some of which show the agency employee assigned to the mosque project, Muhammad Ali-Salaam, traveled to the Middle East to raise money for mosque construction and asked a Saudi media executive to help plan a trip to Saudi Arabia for Mayor Thomas M. Menino and other elected officials. BRA officials said the trip never took place.

The David Project said yesterday that it expects the BRA to turn over additional documents in its possession.

The Islamic Society is building the 70,000-square-foot mosque -- the largest in New England -- on a Roxbury parcel it bought from the BRA for $175,000 in 2003. The 45,000-square-foot parcel had been assessed at $401,000. The society also agreed to provide public benefits -- including maintaining a park and giving lectures at Roxbury Community College -- as part of the sale.

The city took the parcel by eminent domain in the 1970s. The BRA selected the Muslim Council of Boston as the developer in 1992, and switched the developer to the Islamic Society of Boston in 1998.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.