New York – Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil The top Islamic chaplain for the city’s jails and who is overseeing 40 Department of Correction chaplains of all faiths, was temporarily booted from his job almost a year after calling the Bush administration “the greatest terrorists in the world” and criticizing Jews.
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Mayor Bloomberg said Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil had been placed on paid administrative leave as city officials review his fiery comments, which included claims that Muslim inmates had been interrogated, tortured and held without being charged in the Metropolitan Correction Center and urged Muslims not to let the “Zionists of the media” determine the meaning of Islam.
He insisted he wasn’t anti-Semitic, adding that his mother was Jewish, having converted to Judaism in 1959. “I’m more Jewish than most who espouse the Jewish faith,” he said.