Mickey Mouse Multiculturalism

Published June 10, 2010 at 2:15 a.m.
Governor Patrick's problematic Mosque visit. Plus, Bush — and the GOP — vote yes for torture
Massachusetts treasurer and independent candidate for governor Tim Cahill was off base when he accused incumbent governor Deval Patrick of "playing politics with terrorism" in the wake of Patrick's visit to the controversial Roxbury mosque maintained by the Islamic Society of Boston.

Massachusetts treasurer and independent candidate for governor Tim Cahill was off base when he accused incumbent governor Deval Patrick of "playing politics with terrorism" in the wake of Patrick's visit to the controversial Roxbury mosque maintained by the Islamic Society of Boston.

It is the Phoenix's view that Cahill would have been closer to the mark if he had suggested that the governor was compromising his long-standing support for gay and lesbian rights, as well as his commitment to equal opportunity for women, by meeting with an imam dedicated to the international spread of Sharia law, the letter of which holds that homosexuals should be executed and women subject to discipline by their husbands.

The Muslim leader in question, Imam Abdullah Faaruuq, a native-born American who studied at the University of Massachusetts, is more moderate than previous leaders associated with the Roxbury mosque. And this is a good thing.

But Faaruuq's moderation is relative. He is not exactly the sort of religious leader likely to be active in AIDS Action or working for marriage equality.

Truth be told, Faaruuq's theological positions appear to be closer to those of Archbishop Sean Patrick Cardinal O'Malley, a staunch advocate of social justice who nevertheless opposes abortion and same-sex marriage as well as the ordination of women.

In institutions as fundamentally conservative as Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, or the national Republican Party, a moderate may turn out to be very conservative indeed. Or, to put it more bluntly, Faaruuq, for all his commitment to economic equality, is by dint of his social positions a reactionary — at least by the standards of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, of which Patrick is the titular leader.

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