Talk about an outrage! How could this guy even be considered for the position of chaplain with the New York City Fire Department?

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?"

Actually, that isn’t true. There are not that many conflicting reports – virtually the whole world agrees that the attack as a bin Laden production. Heck, Osama himself claims responsibility. The only folks who deny that the attack was an Islamist production are those with an anti-American or anti-Semitic (or both) agenda.

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."

Sorry – not good enough. If you cannot even acknowledge the fact that your co-religionists murdered hundreds of firefighters in the name of Islam, then you do not belong with FDNY. You are the moral equivalent of a Holocaust denier, and the city has a responsibility to reject you as unfit to serve.

UPDATE: Good news! The defender of Islamist terrorists has stepped aside.

Now letÂ’s deport him. There is no place for terrorist apologists in this country.

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Does CAIR want to call this racial profiling?

When FBI agents walked into Mahmoud Maawad's spartan apartment at 3557 Mynders # 5 on Sept. 9, they found a desk, chair, computer and a Koran.

They also found an airline pilot's uniform, a chart of Memphis International Airport, and instructional DVDs, including one called "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act."

A federal magistrate Thursday ordered Maawad, a 29-year-old University of Memphis student from Egypt, jailed until his trial on charges of wire fraud and fraudulent use of a Social Security number.

"The specific facts and circumstances are scary," Asst. U.S. Atty. Steve Parker said, arguing against Maawad's release.

Since Maawad can't get a Social Security number, "he can't get a pilot's license, and can't go to flight school," Parker said. "But he wants to get behind the wheel of an aircraft."

Parker said "we don't know either way" if Maawad is a terrorist or connected to any terror groups.

U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Thomas Anderson ruled that Maawad be held without bond.

Oh, yeah – he’s here on an expired visa.

Sound familiar?

(Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin)

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Look at what the people that Cindy Sheehan and other Leftoids call "freedom fighters" and the moral equivalent of our Foundng Fathers did in the town of Tel Afar.

When the terrorists took over the city, McMasters said, they replaced all the imams from the mosques with Islamic extremist laymen; replaced all teachers from the schools with people who "preached hatred and intolerance"; and kidnapped and murdered large numbers of people, "including a Sunni Turkmen imam and a city councilman who was shot about 30 times to the head in front of his family.

"The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine," McMasters said, "in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child's body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents."

Would someone explain to me why the Saddamites paints the US as the attrocity-committing bag guys because of unintended collateral damage, but won't point out this sort of gross evil when it is committed intentionally by terrorists?

(Hat Tip: Jawa Report

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Lest you think that the friendly Islamofascists at CAIR don't want to impose Ssharia law on unwilling women and men here in America, look at this entry from Robert Spencer's JihadWatch.

What happens if a woman shows up for a CAIR photo-op without a hijab? No problem! They'll just Photoshop one on!

Seeing is believing -- and the pictures (both versions) are up at JihadWatch. Not only was one of the speakers at the press convference given a Photoshop hijab, so werre two women just standing in the audience!

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It seems that the Gitmo hunger strike is growing.

Military officials have characterized the protest as a "fast" of prisoners aimed at grabbing attention, and say it involves 128 prisoners. They say its significance is exaggerated by their lawyers.

Weir said no detainees are in danger of dying and that the military's treatment is preventing them from losing critical nutrition. Of the 18 people hospitalized, 13 are being force-fed through nasal tubes and five are being given intravenous hydration.

Hey – their bodies, their choice. I’m opposed to stopping any enemy of the United States from committing suicide -- provided they are not taking innocents with them. Just call me “pro-choice”.

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Jonah Goldberg points to this little gem from the latest al-Qaeda communiqué.

"Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing. And this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion," the tape warns. "We are Muslims. We love peace, but peace on our terms, peace as laid down by Islam, not the so-called peace of occupiers and dictators."

Restraint? Compassion? Really?

Sounds to me like these terrorists accept the notion of Islam as a religion of peace – provided that it is an Islamic peace extorted through murder and mayhem, imposed upon those to cowardly to fight back.

For that reason alone, we must institute a full-blown Crusade Against Islamic Terror.

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After all, how could one possibly see anti-Semitism in this?

As the last IDF soldiers were heading out of the Gaza Strip early Monday morning, thousands of celebrating Palestinians took to the streets and made their way to the abandoned Jewish settlements.

Palestinian bulldozers began on Monday afternoon to knock down the synagogues left in Gaza.

In Neveh Dekalim – formerly Gush Katif's urban center – Palestinians set fire to what was just last month a yeshiva.

Gunmen from several Palestinian factions stormed through the settlement. One group planted a flag from the ruling Fatah movement on the roof of the yeshiva, while others set a fire inside.

Flames also shot skyward from the synagogue building in the isolated settlement of Morag in southern Gaza.

I guess the “drive the Jews into the sea” mentality is still prevalent, even when the Israelis unilaterally give into the demands of the Palestinians.

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The design of the memorial to the Heroes of Flight 93 has caused a furor. A.M. Siriano offers this analysis of what is wrong with the design -- not merely the inclusion of a Muslim crescent, but also of a structure that mimics a Muslim minaret!

I can think of no greater affront to American honor than to slap a blatantly Islamic symbol across a 9/11 memorial, but that is exactly what is in the works. The winning entry for the Flight 93 National Memorial, unveiled on September 7th, just four days before the fourth anniversary of 9/11, includes both the Islamic symbol of the Crescent--the "Crescent of Embrace"--and, more carefully disguised, a minaret-like structure called the "Tower of Voices" whose chimes continually "celebrate a living memory of those who are honored." Just who is being honored is in question.

The Los Angeles-based architect who submitted this disgraceful design is Paul Murdoch, who insists that no connection to Islam was intended, that his memorial is "not about religion, per se," but is to be a spiritual, sacred place open to all. So is this much ado about nothing? ...a mere coincidence?

If you believe that, then you don't understand the nature of artists, which is what architects are. (Try to debate with them that they are not; you will get an earful.)

The inclusion of symbols of the malign theology that led to the deaths of the passengers and crew of Flight 93, as well as of so many other Americans on 9/11 is unacceptable.

Especially because of what will not be included at Ground Zero.

But let's imagine that Murdoch had, by naïve coincidence, incorporated a giant Cross in his designs, and nearby a building that looked something like--by sheer chance, mind you--a cathedral. Imagine the atheistic outcry from the left!

The fact is, that very thing has already happened, at Ground Zero itself, when a Cross of Steel was found amidst the rubble and hoisted high for the faithful to come and offer prayers. Some folks, like me, wanted to see that Cross become a permanent fixture of the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan (it never mattered to us if it was a natural or supernatural manifestation, only that it was a worthy and comforting symbol). The American Atheists and other groups killed the proposal with little trouble. The Cross, discovered by a Christian, Frank Silecchia, now resides on "the high walkway over West Street." How's that for a weak testimony to the Christian heritage upon which this country was founded?

Yes -- the symbol of the faith of so many of the honored dead of 9/11 will not be inculded at the site of their deaths -- but the symbols of their murderers will be included at another 9/11 memorial.

I urge those responsible to scrap the current Flight 93 memorial plan and to go back to seek another design.

(More on Flight 93 Memorial here and here.

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Originally Posted on September 11, 2004

So many died that horrible day.

One was my classmate at Washington and Lee University, Commander Robert Allan Schlegel.

I would love to tell you he and I were close. That would be a lie.

I would love to share stories of great times together. I don't have any.

What I can tell you is that I remember Rob Schlegel as a good guy, a friend of some friends. I remember him as being a bright guy, sitting a couple rows over and a couple seats back in a US History class. One of those classmates you later wish you had gotten to know when you had the chance.

Rest in Peace.

May all all the victims of September 11 and the many men and women of our armed forces who have died fighting terrorism since that day rest in peace.

And let us not forget those heroes who still live.

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The detention of Jose Padilla is consistent with federal statutes, Supreme Court precedent, , the US Constitution, and customary international law. He may be held until al-Qaeda is defeated -- just like is done with a POW.

"The exceedingly important question before us is whether the President of the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of this country who is closely associated with al Qaeda, an entity with which the United States is at war," Judge Michael Luttig wrote. "We conclude that the President does possess such authority."

Lest anyone forget a rapidly approaching anniversary, these people are making war upon us and trying to kill us.

(Hat Tip -- Michelle Malkin)

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