Author: Brian Blomquist
Publication: New York Post
Date: June 27, 2003
Militant Muslim imams are preaching
a distorted, hateful form of Islam to U.S. soldiers and federal prisoners,
creating a "dangerous situation," Sen. Charles Schumer charged yesterday.
Schumer said the problem is that
the Pentagon and the federal Bureau of Prisons select Muslim imams on the
advice of Islamic groups in the grip of the fanatical Wahhabism strain
of the religion.
"While the potential Wahhabi influence
in the U.S. Armed Forces is not well documented, these organizations have
succeeded in ensuring that militant Wahhabism is the only form of Islam
that is preached to the 12,000 Muslims in federal prison," Schumer said
at a Senate hearing on extremist Wahhabi Islam, which has been linked to
terrorism.
In February, the New York prison
system barred its top Muslim chaplain from its prison facilities after
the imam, Warith Dean Umar, said the 9/11 hijackers should be treated as
martyrs.
"The imams flood the prisons with
anti-American, pro-bin Laden videos, literature and sermon tapes . . .
The point of prison [should be] to rehabilitate violent prisoners."
The Bureau of Prisons uses the Graduate
School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GISS), which is under investigation
for possible funneling of money to terrorists, and the Islamic Society
of North America, which has board members with terror links, Schumer charged.
American Muslim Foundation President
Abdurahman Alamoudi said his organization had no role advising the Pentagon.
Alamoudi said he formerly gave the Pentagon advice on selecting imams,
but "they pushed me out."
