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An imam slated to be sworn in as a Fire Department chaplain Friday resigned over comments he made to a local newspaper questioning who was responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks, a decision he explained to NY1 in an exclusive interview.
In a phone interview with New York Newsday, Imam Intikab Habib said he doubted the U.S. government's official story blaming 19 hijackers associated with al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center. Habib told the newspaper that he still wasn't sure who was responsible for the attacks.
The imam told NY1's Cindi Avila in an exclusive interview Friday that he did not want to resign but felt it was the best thing for the department.
"I was given a choice of whether to resign or not," said Habib. "Unfortunately, I did not want to, but it was best for the department. I was giving my personal opinion that I don't know anything about the 9/11 attack. I don't know if hijackers did it. I don't have any knowledge, so I'm not in any way guilty that I am a Muslim and Muslims did it."
Habib, a teacher at an Islamic school in Ozone Park, Queens, had actually been with the FDNY for six weeks already, during what the department said was a probationary period.
But Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said once he heard about Habib’s remarks he couldn't see how the imam could become a chaplain in a department that lost 343 firefighters on 9/11.
"In view of of his expressed views on 9/11 and what happened on 9/11, [it was determined] that he would not be able to adequately perform his function as an FDNY chaplain," said Scoppetta.
The firefighters union says the fire commissioner personally hired the imam and should take responsibility for his words and issue an apology.
"Instead, he has made a mockery of this and hasn't had the courage to step forward and apologize to the families of 9/11 and all the New York City firefighters," said Uniformed Firefighters Association President Stephen Cassidy.
But the fire commissioner says there were a lot of other hands involved in this hiring.
"He was recommended to us by our Islamic Society,” said Scoppetta. “He was interviewed by one of our senior chaplains. He has quite an education, and that seemed to qualify him."
So what will qualify the next chaplain? The fire commissioner says the FDNY will again look for a Muslim, and he says the same process they used to pick Habib will be used to find his successor.
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