Source: Beliefnet

Wire Service: AP

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/187/story_18731_1.html

On March 10, 2006 the Associated Press reported, "The head chaplain for the city's jails has been suspended while authorities investigate incendiary statements the Harlem imam allegedly made last year, including a comment that the 'greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House.' The New York Post reported Thursday that the remarks were captured on an audiotape last April by the Investigative Project, a counterterrorism group, as the chaplain, Umar Abdul-Jalil, addressed a conference sponsored by the Muslim Students Association in Tucson, Arizona. In the speech, Abdul-Jalil also allegedly said that Muslims jailed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were 'tortured' in the Manhattan Correctional Center. Abdul-Jalil, a prominent imam from Harlem, was put on paid administrative leave Thursday while Mayor Michael Bloomberg, city lawyers and correction officials review the remarks. The mayor said Friday he has a copy of the speech and will examine it before he makes a decision."