ADL plans new task force to address Muslim concerns

The Anti-Defamation League plans to create an interfaith task force to respond to pleas from Muslim communities facing denial of permission to build mosques, or that have faced prejudice, in their neighborhoods, Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director, told The Jewish Standard in a telephone conversation on Friday.

“It will take a while,” Foxman stressed, “because we need to find the partners.”

The venerable civil rights organization came under fire earlier this month when it announced its opposition to construction of an Islamic cultural center that would include a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, in deference, it said, to the feelings of families who had lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks.

One beneficial result of the controversy, Foxman added, is that it focused attention on problems facing Muslim communities around the country that want to build mosques.

For more on the ADL’s position on the controversial Islamic cultural center and mosque in New York City, read next week’s Jewish Standard.

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