Wong Apologizes In Wake of Inflammatory Video

The group Americans for Peace and Tolerance released a video yesterday in which five boys on a sixth grade field trip last May appear to pray with the faithful at a Boston mosque.

The video, which was said to have been filmed by a mother who chaperoned the trip to the Islamic Center of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury, prompted an apology from School Superintendent Bella T. Wong. In a letter emailed to parents she called the fact that any students were allowed to appear "imitating the act of prayer" an error.

"The purpose of the field trip was for students to visit and observe a place of worship. It was not the intent for students to be able to participate in any of the religious practices," Wong's letter states.

Charles Jacobs, who heads Americans for Peace and Tolerance, which he said works from a "secure and undisclosed location" in the Boston area, refused to say who provided his group with the video.

"She does not want to become public because of social pressure," he said. "She does not want to become a public figure."

School officials say students can attend the field trip only with permission from parents and that parents are invited to attend. Last year parents of just one student denied permission for their son or daughter to attend the field trip, which is part of the sixth grade social studies curriculum "Enduring Beliefs and the World Today."

Wong said neither she nor any social studies teachers on the trip or administrators received any complaints after the field trip 

Jacobs conceded the woman, who he said taped the students' visit, had not spoken with school teachers or administrators about her concerns after returning from the mosque. He said his group was approached by the woman sometime last spring and that he waited until now to release it because "no one is around during the summer."

At the Middle School "go to school night" last night, many parents voiced support for the curriculum, which includes a visit to a synagogue, a gospel music performance and a visit from representatives of the Hindu religion.

"It generated a lot of interesting conversation in our family," said Mary Crown, whose son attended the Mosque field trip last May. "He learned a lot about Islam and Hinduism that frankly I didn't know, and that I should have known."

Crown also questioned the motives of the woman who Americans for Peace and Tolerance said provided the video.

"If you feel that strongly about how wrong this was, then you shouldn't hide behind your anonymity," Crown said.

Ute Smith, whose daughter also attended last year's field trip, had similar questions about the motives behind Americans for Peace and Tolerance's release of the video.

"It seems opportunistic to release this now when there seems to be a distinct atmosphere of anti-Islamic sentiment in this country," she said.

"If she thought this was so outrageous, why didn't she go to school officials and release her video straightaway?"

Jacobs said his group's intent is to simply "teach people about this mosque."

"We have a big problem because the Saudis have put a base of Jihadi Islam in downtown Boston. These are radicals in downtown Boston," he said.

No one from the Islamic Center of Boston was available to respond to the claims last night, however their website describes five years of legal battles with groups opposing its construction.

Jacobs said his group was among those involved in legal action by the Islamic Center, which he said was eventually resolved "after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Jacobs said he has a problem with public school students being allowed to pray at a mosque while on a field trip, but that his specific complaint is with the selection of this particular location for a visit.

He called the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, for example, "more moderate."

On the tape, in which the voice of the "mother" is actually a "reenactment," a woman can be heard whispering "Oh my God," as the video shows what appears to be the students praying with other men.

The woman portraying the mother can then be heard saying, "I was shaking as I saw one of the Jewish boys praying."

The woman then says, "I looked at the teachers to do something, say something. No one said anything, perhaps afraid to offend."

Wong addressed this in her letter, writing, "In the future, teachers will provide more clear guidance to students to better define what is allowed to fulfill the purpose of observation."