The chairman of the board of the Islamic Society of Boston filed a defamation suit yesterday against WFXT-TV (Channel 25), claiming that an investigative report identifying him as a member of a terrorist group is part of a pattern of anti-Muslim bias in the media.
The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior court by Dr. Yousef Abou-Allaban, 41, a Syrian-born psychiatrist who is a US citizen, alleges that he was defamed by a November 2004 story and promotional spots describing him as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a violent terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.
The suit names Channel 25, its parent company, Fox Television Stations Inc., reporter Michael Beaudet, and producer Jonathan Wells as defendants.
"I felt I was victimized," Abou-Allaban said in an interview. "There have been many people in the Muslim community who have been demonized and lost their businesses. I felt my reputation had been tarnished. . . . I felt I became a walking criminal associated with a criminal like Osama bin Laden."
Abou-Allaban said he began to recognize the potential impact of the story when a longtime patient told him: "I never expected you to be an Al Qaeda member."
A spokeswoman for WFXT said the station had not seen the suit, and refused comment. Wells and Beaudet also declined comment. A spokeswoman for Fox Television Stations Inc. said she could not talk about a pending lawsuit.
In the suit, the plaintiff says that the sole source for the assertion that Abou-Allaban is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood is Dr. Ahmed Elkadi, a man "purported to have been the president of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States prior to 1995," and who "is totally and permanently disabled" and whose "neurological status is that of severe impairment."
Abou-Allaban's lawyer, Harvey Schwartz, said that for the purposes of the suit, his client is likely to be considered a public figure. This means he will have to show not only that the WFXT report was false and defamatory, but also that it was broadcast with reckless disregard for the truth. Asked about that high burden of proof, Schwartz said: "Obviously, it's not insurmountable," referring to the verdict Friday in which a Suffolk County jury awarded Judge Ernest B. Murphy $2.09 million in his libel suit against the Boston Herald.
To prove malice on the part of the defendants, Schwartz said, the plaintiff will "show this was part of an overall practice" of both WFXT and the Fox News Channel cable outlet. The suit alleges that Abou-Allaban had been victimized by an anti-Muslim stereotype "regularly purveyed by Fox." The Fox News Channel and Fox Television Stations Inc. are part of News Corp., Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
"It's what our society does now to Muslims and Arabs, which is not all that different from what was done to the Japanese [during World War II]," Schwartz said. "I call it psychological internment."
Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based nonprofit group that works to enhance the image of Islam, said the portrayal of Muslims in the media "is definitely an issue of rising concern for us," after the Sept. 11 attacks.
In January, CAIR officials met with Fox broadcast network officials to express concern about a plot in the "24" antiterrorism drama series that featured a Muslim family as a sleeper cell. After that meeting, "24" star Keifer Sutherland, delivered an on-air disclaimer saying: "While terrorism is obviously one of the most critical challenges facing our nation and the world, it is important to recognize that the American Muslim community stands firmly beside their fellow Americans in denouncing and resisting all forms of terrorism."
In his suit, Abou-Allaban acknowledged that the Islamic Society of Boston's $22 million project to build a mosque and a cultural center "has generated some controversy." Last year, the organization made headlines when a group known as Citizens for Peace and Tolerance accused it of having connections to extremists. The group also faced accusations of anti-Semitism when it was found that a former director and current trustee had written articles that, among other things, called Jews the "murderers of prophets."
Officials at the center have formed a new board of directors, begun an outreach effort to other community and religious groups, and disavowed the writings that generated the charges of anti-Semitism. In December, the organization announced that it would carefully monitor teachers at the new center to ensure that extremism and bigotry was not being taught or preached there.