Bilal Kaleem, Executive Director of the Boston Chapter of Muslim American Society, has been very busy with the arrival of Ramadan. For the past few years, the Islamic Society of Boston has been wrapped up in a number of lawsuits and counter lawsuits involving Fox 25 and The Boston Herald.

In October 2003, the Herald selected several of Dr. Walid Fitaihi’s articles and proceeded to accuse his statements of being anti-Semitic. The ISB filed a defamation lawsuit in 2005 that claimed that some news outlets and Jewish advocacy groups were putting together a campaign to stop construction on the mosque they are in the process of constructing. One of the claims was that the Islamic society leaders had ties to suspected terrorist groups.

The ISB set to work reviewing Fitaihi’s previous works, and according to isboston.org, “the articles were intended to condemn particular individuals whom he believes were working to destroy one of Islam’s holiest sites, killing innocent children, and thereby blocking the possibility of peace in the Middle East; the articles were not meant to incite hatred of an entire faith or people.”

The court case that the ISB filed against Fox 25, the Herald and 14 other individuals and entities was dropped at the end of May, and now hundreds are partaking in many of the activities every day and night during this celebratory time.

“This is a very exciting and optimistic time,” explains Kaleem. “One of the most promising on goings are the several fundraisers in the works to complete the mosque in Roxbury.”

Kaleem said he is “very happy for this historic time [Ramadan] being so close to the opening of the new mosque.”

Once construction is complete, Kaleem is looking forward to “inviting neighbors of different faiths” to the new mosque, and exhibiting the openness of the Islamic faith.

Information from the Boston Globe was used in this article.