Oslo: Imam blames 9/11 on US in college lecture

Oslo: Imam blames 9/11 on US in college lecture

The lecture can be seen here (Norwegian).

The conspiracy theory is not new, and neither is the imam's claim that the US invented Bin Laden as an excuse to attack Iraq and Afghanistan, as can be seen here (Norwegian, with English subtitles). The lectures are from last May, but have only now caught national attention.

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The USA was responsible for the terror attacks of 9/11, a Norwegian imam claimed during a lecture at Oslo University College.

In front of a packed lecture hall at the college, the famous Norwegian imam Zulqarnain Sakandar Madni claimed at length tat it was the American powers who were responsible for the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

The lecture, which was organized by IslamNet in May, 2008, was uploaded to YouTube.

In two weeks he is again invited to speak to Muslim students at the nation's largest college. This is taking place at the same time that PST (Norwegian security service) cautions in its new threat report against an increasing tendency to radicalization in some part of the Norwegian-Muslim community.

Imam Zulqarnain Sakandar Madni grew up in Norway but was educated in Saudi-Arabia.

In the videos, which have been uploaded to the poplar internet site, the imam, who's also known as head of Norway's united ulama (scholars), hints to young Muslim female and male students that thousands of Jews knew that the terror attacks will happen and that they escaped the attacks on the World Trade Center by not showing up for work.

"In total 4,000 Jews were away from the two towers the same day. They didn't come to work. Why not?" the imam said in the lecture.

In the videos the Norwegian imam goes very far in his efforts to convince the assembly that 9/11 was an arranged play.

"Where was the American airforce on September 11, 2001? Were they so not serious, or were they sleeping? This says that it was planned. They wanted to attack Saddam, and wanted to attack Afghanistan. The Pentagon knew exactly what happened, because it was planned," says Sakandar in the over ten minute long lecture on the terror attacks against the USA.

The video shows that the imam during the lecture almost made fun of the media's reporting that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the terrorism,and he won laughter from the hall when he repeated his version of the media's covered of the terror attack.

"They said 'bin Laden' after a few minutes," says Sakander and claims further that the media must have also known that the terror attack will happen.

"How in the world can a cameraman or a journalist find out that Osama bin Laden was responsible. The people concerned could have gotten a slip of paper in hand from before," continued the imam.

TV 2 asked the head of the Oslo University College to look at the video for a response. After having seen the segments, he said they did not plan to deny the organization which invited imam Madni by censuring his lecture. The imam will therefore participate in a new debate on March 6th, in auditorium 35 at Oslo College University.

The Islamic Network are responsible for the lectures at the college. They do not want to comment on the invitation to the imam and choose to only speak about 9/11.

Sakandar had caught attention in the past with his opinions about the terror attacks of 9/11. During a net-meeting at Aftenposten in 2006, the imam claims that the terrorist organization al-Qaeda and bin Laden were fictional.

The videos from his lecture at the Oslo University College show that the controversial imam had not changed his point of view that the attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon were an American led conspiracy to have an excuse to invade Muslim countries.

The videos also clearly show that he is used as a resource person in these issues by the Muslim student community in the capital.

In the videos there are no critical comments, not from the chairman, not from the hall and not from other debaters, to the imam's opinions about September 11.

Source: TV 2 (Norwegian)

See also:
* Norway: Increasing radicalization among extremist Muslims