Posted on 11/02/2001 5:42:47 AM PST by SocialMeltdown
State prison officials have put a Muslim chaplain at the Albion Correctional Facility on paid administrative leave after she reportedly told inmates that Osama bin Laden "is a hero to all Muslims."
She also is said to have told a gathering of inmates that the United States was making a scapegoat of bin Laden, and that the Taliban government in Afghanistan is right in not turning him over to the United States.
Corrections authorities say Sister Aminah Akbar of Rochester was locked out of the women's prison Thursday. She was put on leave while prison authorities investigate more than a half-dozen complaints about the speech, made before corrections officers as well as inmates.
"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.
Flateau, who said Akbar is paid $29,395 for the part-time job, said he was barred by union contract from discussing the complaints against her.
Joseph Green, a business agent for the union representing corrections officers, said a half-dozen corrections officers had filed written complaints against her. Inmates also reportedly had submitted at least three written complaints.
Green said Akbar spoke to a group of about 120 inmates and a half-dozen corrections officers at the prison Saturday during an event called "American Solidarity Day."
According to notes taken by officers during the talk, Green said, Akbar told the gathering:
"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."
Akbar could not be reached to comment at two phone numbers provided by acquaintances in Rochester.
Green, a business agent for the 25,000-member State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said Akbar began her address by noting that the name of the meeting had been changed.
"This event has been changed from Black Solidarity Day to American Solidarity Day," she said, according to the account written down by officers. "I am not an American, I just live here. We have been beaten and harassed for over 500 years, and we should not take it anymore."
Green said she also told inmates the American government had lied about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was now "making a scapegoat out of Osama bin Laden."
"The United States is a giant country," she reportedly said. "Why are they bombing a country the size of a pea?"
"The inmates got restless, as well as the officers, upon hearing this," Green said.
The union representative criticized the prison administration for failing to pass the complaints immediately to department officials in Albany.
Change your name to "Akbar" and buy a Qur'an.
Oh, wait, this is New York. Nevermind.
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