9-11 - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
Incoming FDNY chaplain questions 9/11 story |
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by CAROL EISENBERG NYNewsday.com Entered into the database on Friday, September 30th, 2005 @ 12:53:35 MST |
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An imam slated to be sworn in Friday as the second Muslim chaplain
in Fire Department history said he questioned whether 19 hijackers were responsible
for the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and suggested a broader conspiracy may have
brought down the Twin Towers and killed more than 2,700 people. In a telephone interview Thursday, Imam Intikab Habib, 30, a native
of Guyana who studied Islam in Saudi Arabia, said he doubted the United States
government's official story blaming 19 hijackers associated with al-Quaida and
Osama bin Laden. "I as an individual don't know who did the attacks," said
Habib, 30, a soft-spoken man who immigrated to New York in July 2000 after spending
six years in Saudi Arabia getting a degree in Islamic theology and law. "There
are so many conflicting reports about it. I don't believe it was 19 ... hijackers
who did those attacks." Asked to elaborate on his reasons for doubting that story, he talked about
video and news reports widely disseminated in the Muslim community. "I've heard professionals say that nowhere ever in history did a steel
building come down with fire alone," he said. "It takes two or three
weeks to demolish a building like that. But it was pulled down in a couple of
hours. Was it 19 hijackers who brought it down, or was it a conspiracy?" Questioned about who he believed was responsible for the attacks, Habib said
he didn't know. He said, however, that he did not expect to raise his doubts
with rank-and-file firefighters -- nor did he share them two weeks ago when
he participated in several Sept. 11 memorials on behalf of the Fire Department. "My position as a chaplain is that whoever did it, it's a tragic incident,"
he said. "I feel sorrow for the families who lost loved ones and for the
firefighters who died in it. Whoever did it, it was a very wrong thing. It's
always wrong to take an innocent human life." A spokesman for the Fire Department, Frank Gribbon, said that Habib was recommended
by the department's Islamic Society and was hired "based on his credentials
as a religious person. We don't ask new employees about their political views
before we hire them." Stephen Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, could
not be reached for comment. Habib's remarks about the attacks came in response to questions about whether
he thought firefighters would accept a chaplain who had been educated in Saudi
Arabia. He said he did not expect that to be an issue because "I come from a country
where you're accustomed to living with people of different ethnic, religious
and racial backgrounds." When pressed further about whether the hijackers' backgrounds -- 15 of whom
were Saudi -- might make his training an issue for still-grieving firefighters,
he went on to express his own doubts about the hijacker story. Habib was one of several imams recommended for the chaplain's job by the Islamic
Society for the Fire Department, as a result of his work teaching junior high
students at Al-Ihsan Academy in Ozone Park, a private Islamic school, where
he worked for about five years. "He's a good man," said Hakim Braxton, president of the Islamic Society.
"Any statements he's made, he's responsible for ... But I would ask that
the citizens of this city give him a chance and judge him on his actions." Braxton also stressed that neither he nor anyone in the Islamic Society would
agree with anyone who tried to justify the terror attack in any way. "I
lost friends, family, co-workers," he said. Braxton described Habib as a "humble, grounded and family man, which is
a good thing in this job, because he's trying to help everyone and he's representing
a very diverse community." Habib himself said he saw his role as ministering to every member of the Fire
Department, not just to Muslims. "Being a chaplain in the Fire Department, I serve the whole Fire Department,"
he said. Read Updated Story from Looking Glass News |