Now here’s a story that bears watching. “Mosque leaders bar Imam Eid from pulpit,” from the Patriot Ledger, with thanks to Twostellas:
Imam Talal Eid was at the Islamic Center of New England’s Quincy mosque for the Friday service, as he said he would be. But he preached no sermon and led no prayers.
Moving quickly to enforce a resignation Imam Eid claimed isn’t valid, the center’s board of directors barred him from the pulpit Friday and sent a board member to act as imam in his place.
“˜”˜He is a beloved imam, but he has resigned, and that’s it,” board vice president Tanweer Zaidi of Sharon said before the service.
The center’s religious director since 1982, Imam Eid joined scores of other men in the prayer service but didn’t speak, according to others who attended.
Zaidi didn’t allow a Patriot Ledger reporter to enter the mosque….
Imam Eid’s supporters, most of whom are affiliated with the Quincy mosque, say critics have hounded him for years for being too moderate and too involved with interfaith programs. Zaidi and other board officers deny that’s the case….
The dispute has plunged New England’s oldest, most diverse Muslim community into the worst crisis of its 41-year history, with charges that conservatives are maneuvering to take control and counter-charges that Imam Eid’s supporters are being bad Muslims for airing the dispute in public.
“Conservatives,” i.e., those who are more likely to favor violent jihad and Sharia. (Please don’t write in telling me about Jerry Falwell’s alleged desire to impose a theocracy. Until he starts beheading people, I am not going to accept this moral equivalency, which is dangerously misleading in distracting people from the reality of the genuine jihad threat.)