New York Muslim Cleric Hate
NYPD searches home of Muslim cleric
Investigators spend the day at Glenmont house
GLENMONT, Jan. 7
By JOHN ALLEN
New York City Police Officers along with Bethlehem Police spent several hours on Friday, taking box loads of items from inside a home at 520 Feura bush road in Glenmont.
That home is where News Channel 13 found Warith Deen Umar back in 2003.
The former Islamic Prison Chaplin was banned from entering any New York State prisons after he allegedly told a Wall Street Journal reporter that terrorists responsible for the September 11th attacks should be honored as martyrs.
Umar has denied that charge.
After News Channel 13 learned of the search warrant being carried out at the Glenmont home, questions arose as to why New York City Police Officers became involved.
NYPD officials say it was because Umar was arrested for an alleged dispute with a tenant at a property he owns in the Bronx.
Police say Umar is charged with menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
NYPD Detective Brian Sessa said it was what police considered more than just a dispute, and there were guns found inside Umar's New York City apartment.
“I don't know this for a fact. I mean there could be more reasons. I’m not at liberty to say why. But this gentleman also has a criminal history that includes a 1974 conviction for conspiracy to commit murder along with two counts of possession of a deadly weapon back in 1974,” Detective Sessa said.
Cleric Faces Charges
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: January 7, 2006
A Muslim cleric was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the Bronx last week, and his home upstate in Glenmont was searched yesterday morning by police and F.B.I. agents, the police said.
The cleric, Warith Deen Umar, 61, a former coordinator for the state's Islamic prison program, was banned from prisons after he was quoted in 2003 in The Wall Street Journal saying the Sept. 11 hijackers should be considered martyrs.
He was arrested on Dec. 30 after a tenant of a building he owns in the Bronx accused Mr. Umar of threatening him with a gun. The police found two guns, a 12-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle, in Mr. Umar's residence in the Bronx building, 756 Union Avenue.