Prison bars Muslim cleric
Volunteer chaplain praised Sept. 11 terrorists as martyrs
February 6, 2003
Free speech can cost you in New York's state prison if you praise terrorism.
That's the determination of the State Correctional Services Department, which has barred the state's former top Muslim cleric from setting foot in its prison system, reports the New York Post.
"He won't be allowed in the prisons any longer because Americans of virtually every race, creed and color reject the statements praising terrorism that he's been making," spokesman James Flateau told the Post.
Warith Deen Umar is a Muslim chaplain who served as the head Muslim cleric in the prison system – a position for which he earned $67,919 a year – from 1975 until his retirement on Aug. 31, 2000, according to the Post. Since retirement Umar has continued making regular visits to the prison on a volunteer basis.
The 58-year-old also worked as a part-time chaplain for the Federal Bureau of Prisons' facility in Otisville.
But that was before Umar said the Sept. 11 terrorists should be honored as "martyrs."
Umar was quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying the United States risks further attacks because of its alleged oppression of Muslims around the world.
"Without justice, there will be warfare, and it can come to this country, too," he reportedly declared.
"This is the sort of teaching they don't want in prison. But this is what I'm doing," he added.
The paper also quotes Umar from an unpublished memoir as stating that "even Muslims who say they are against terrorism secretly admired and applaud" the World Trade Center's destruction and that the Quran does not condemn terrorism against oppressors of Muslims, even if innocent people die.
According to the Journal article, the Illinois native spent his 15th and 16th birthdays in jail for purse-snatching and drug crimes, later converted to Islam and began practicing the militant form of the religion known as Wahhabism.
During his 25-year tenure inside the prison system, Umar is said to have helped convert thousands of inmates to Islam.
On word of the Journal article, federal authorities fired Umar and state officials rolled up the welcome mat.
Umar declined to comment on the ban until he could "review it and absorb it," reports the Post.
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