Tuesday, September 18, 2001

By George Jaksa
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Fenton - More than two years ago, a well-known Muslim leader who has offices in Fenton warned U.S. officials of a possible strike against the country by Osama bin Laden forces, but little came of it.

The hijacked airliners that slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last week were not what Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani had expected, but he said his warning still should have been heeded.

Kabbani, who maintains a low profile in his office in a Fenton shopping district, is chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, a nonprofit, nongovernmental religious organization promoting Islam as a religion of moderation, tolerance, peace and justice.

He advised the Clinton administration, the U.S. Department of State and other policy-forming entities on political, religious and cultural issues. He also attended Friday's national day of mourning service in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., at the invitation of President Bush.

Kabbani said he is irritated that, in some quarters, Muslims in general are being blamed for last week's attacks because Muslims themselves were among the victims.

"I have every reason to believe they (the attackers) are trying to hide behind the name of Islam," Kabbani said.

In fact, he said many Muslims worked in the center and even had a room to use as a mosque for Friday afternoon religious services.

He urged the Muslim community to stand up against the terrorists and to pass on to U.S. authorities any information they may have that will lead to the arrest of the attackers' accomplices.

He said Muslims must speak up loudly to decry the attacks. If they had spoken up before, they probably "could have saved many lives, and we wouldn't be in this danger," Kabbani said.

It was at an open forum at the U.S. Department of State on Jan. 7, 1999, that he spoke out against extremists and warned that bin Laden was trying to form a coalition of groups to fight the West.

He said the United States should be concerned that extremists "were able to buy more than 20 nuclear warheads from some of the mafia in the ex-Soviet Union" for $30 million and two tons of opium.

Kabbani also said the extremists hired a number of unemployed scientists from the former Soviet Union to try to build an atomic reactor to break the nuclear warheads into smaller parts that could be shipped around the world in suitcases or even handbags.

He also told the State Department forum that a number of nonprofit organizations in the United States have collected "humanitarian" funds to send to extremists outside the country. He said he didn't know where the money was going, but it likely was sent to parties in the Middle East and the Far East, including Afghanistan and the Caucasus.

He also said the United States must be alert to possible biological attacks.

He repeated his concerns Monday in an interview at his office after discussing them on the NBC "Today" show. Other media have also asked to talk with him, but he said little attention was given to his original warning.

Kabbani applauded Bush's handling of the crisis thus far.

"Bush is standing up in this crisis and, by doing so, shows he's a great president," Kabbani said. "I hope he will find the right people who did that (the attacks) and punish them."

He said he expects to attend briefings with U.S. Congress members in the next few days.

The soft-spoken Kabbani, 56, was born in Lebanon and has been a U.S. citizen since 1990.

George Jaksa covers religion. He can be reached at (810) 766-6332 or gjaksa@flintjournal.com.