Prison Chaplain Calls bin Laden a 'Muslim Hero'

Back to the Politically Correct Detractor's Page

NewsMax.com

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 1:38 p.m. EST

A prison chaplain in upstate New York's Albion Correctional Facility has been put on paid administrative leave after telling inmates that Osama bin Laden should be "a hero to all Muslims."

"This afternoon, we put on administrative leave Chaplain Aminah Akbar, who is a Muslim chaplain, pending an investigation into her conduct," said James Flateau, spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services, in an interview with the Buffalo News on Thursday.

Akbar spoke to a group of about 120 inmates and a half-dozen corrections officers at the prison Saturday during an event billed as "American Solidarity Day," the paper said.

Officers who took notes during her speech said Akbar told the group:

"Bin Laden is a warrior for Allah, as all Muslims should be. Bin Laden is a hero to all Muslims. The Taliban are right in not letting the U.S. take bin Laden. The U.S. has no proof that he destroyed the World Trade Center."

Inmates as well as corrections officer were offended by her remarks, with many of the guards filing written complaints, the News said.

Other remarks attributed to Akbar included complaints about slavery.

"We have been beaten and harassed for over 500 years, and we should not take it anymore," she reportedly told the group, adding, "I am not an American, I just live here."

"The United States is a giant country," Chaplain Akbar continued. "Why are they bombing a country the size of a pea?"

Akbar's praise for bin Laden echoes that of New Black Panther Party spokesman Malik Shabazz, who told the National Press Club over the weekend that the U.S. was scapegoating the Mideast terrorist.

"Blame President Bush" for the Sept. 11 attacks, Shabazz insisted.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Al-Qaeda
Homeland/Civil Defense
War on Terrorism

A product that might interest you:
Watch Your Kids - Monitor Use on Your Computer