9/11 Conspiracist Cleared to Teach Course on Islam This Fall
by Amanda B. Carpenter
HUMAN EVENTS
08-31-2006
As college students settle back into their chairs after a long, hazy summer Dr. Kevin Barrett, is coming back fresh from rehearsing his 9/11 conspiracy theories over the break.
This fall, Barrett, a Muslim, who believes the September 11 terrorist attacks were secretly conducted by U.S. government, will be paid $8,247 by the University of Wisconsin to teach a course titled, “Islam: Religion and Culture.”
Barrett recently told Sean Hannity that he thought it was “really important to cover these political issues and one of them, of course, the so-called ‘war on terror.’ Now, the fact is that the great majority of the world’ Muslims believe that 9/11 was an inside job.”
Since this appearance on the Hannity Show, the University of Wisconsin conducted a search on Barrett’s record and has cleared him to teach the course this fall.
Barrett, 47, earned his degree in African studies in literature in 2004 from the university and was selected to teach Islam after another professor went on a sabbatical. Barrett became a Muslim in 1993 after reading about Islamic mysticism. He later married a Muslim woman. He, his wife and his two young boys now live in university housing.
Although he is not trained in Muslim studies, the Chicago Tribune said “administrators felt he had the background for the course, having taken it as a student and worked as a teaching assistant for several semesters.”
In his free time, Barrett is a ringleader of a fringe group called “Scholars for 9/11 Truth” that includes retired and active university professors that share his beliefs that the U.S. government is responsible for driving planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Barrett also founded a Madison chapter of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth, where people of these faiths are “uniting to fight for 9/11 truth and put an end to the bogus ‘war on terror’ along with the escalating violence between the Abrahamic faiths.” He is also writes and edits the Muslim magazine, al-Jumuah.
After Barrett’s group and theories began to get some unwanted national media attention, the university reviewed his record. On July 20 Provost Patrick Farrell decided to keep him on staff. In a letter to Barrett Farrell wrote, “I have accepted your assurance that you could control your enthusiasm for your personal viewpoints on the topic of 9/11 and present them in class in an objective and balanced time frame and context.”
In April 2005, Barrett brought his friend and fellow conspiracist, Dr. David Ray Griffin a professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology to speak about their shared theories to U-WM. Griffin is also a member of “Scholars for 9/11 Truth.”
Griffin's third book about the perceived cover-up will be released tomorrow. His latest, is titled "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action". In it, he declares, “The motives behind this false-flag operation were imperial motives, oriented around the dream of extending the American empire so that it is an all-inclusive global empire, resulting in a global Pax Americana.” Boston University Howard Zinn agreed to blurb the book.
Griffin and Barrett both are convinced the Twin Towers were felled by explosives planted by the U.S. government. This theory was passionately articulated by their fellow member and physicist friend, Dr. Steve Jones. Jones is a tenured professor at Brigham Young University. He proposes that thermite rods placed by U.S. government officials were responsible for bringing down the Twin Towers, not jet-fueled explosions.
Jones posted a paper online last in late 2005 that concluded the buildings must have been taken down by explosives, because yellow-colored explosions emerged, indicating a vaporization of steel. He said this could not be possible from jet-fueled explosions because structural steel melts at 2,750 degrees Fahrenheit. Jet fuel does not get any hotter than 1,800 degrees. Therefore, the jet fuel could not have vaporized the steel and something else must have.
The three speculate U.S. government officials were responsible for placing the explosives that did.
A 10,000 page investigation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology has since declared this proposition to be false. The report maintains that jet-fueled fires collapsed the buildings outer structures leading to the implosions.
The academics disregard the NIST’s findings and Jones told the Chronicle of Higher Education last June he is petitioning Congress to get the raw data used for their study.
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