Imams, Jews, TV news, and more.

THE IMAMS AND THE JEWS

For an extremely disturbing portrait of the political climate in one of the premier mosques in America, see the interview by the Forward's Rachel Donadio with Imam Abu-Namous, which is available on the web at www.forward.com/issues/2001/01.10.26/news5.html.

As Donadio explains, "Omar Saleem Abu-Namous became chief imam this month at New York's Islamic Cultural Center after his predecessor, Imam Mohammad Al-Gamei'a, mysteriously returned to Egypt" and subsequently blamed the September 11 attack on an international Jewish conspiracy headed by Israel's secret police. "The Islamic Cultural Center," Donadio explains, "opened in 1991 and was paid for by the governments of Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia." So is the new guy an improvement? Hardly, as these excerpts from Donadio's interview make clear:

Q: Imam Al-Gamei'a said that he thought the Jews were behind the attack and the Zionist media was trying to cover it up. What do you think of those views?

A: His argument was that that kind of attack required technology beyond the capability of Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, in the absence of definitive pieces of evidence, nobody can say for sure. I would not, for example, accuse any party. To be fair, I'd not accuse the Jews or the Muslims. Because no definitive proof has been given that any specific quarter or authority or organization did that.

Q: Would you rule out that Jews did it?

A: (laughs) That is, as a matter of fact, a question that I cannot say, that it was committed by Jews or non-Jews, because I don't have any evidence.

Q: What about the 19 men who the government says took over the planes?

A: According to reports, many of those 19 young men who were supposed to have died, many of them are still living, in point of fact. They reported to the mass media that they're still living. I think the reports were not precise, not 100 percent accurate.

Just to be clear, this is from the spiritual leader of a mosque, located at 96th Street and 3rd Ave. on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and catering to an upscale community that includes Islamic members of the diplomatic corps.

ANCHORS AWAY

There have been lots of jokes among newspeople about "anthrax envy"--the feeling on the part of TV anchors who didn't receive deadly envelopes of the bacteria that they had been left out. But the only documented case so far appears to be that of ABC's Carole Simpson, who has been suspended for two weeks from that network's Sunday edition of World News Tonight for a variety of indiscretions she uttered as the speaker at an International Women's Media Foundation luncheon.

As reported by USA Today TV columnist Peter Johnson, Simpson disclosed private details about a colleague's infant who had contracted cutaneous anthrax. "But what further angered [ABC execs] was that Simpson, who is based in ABC's Washington bureau, told the group that the anthrax attack had hit home in her very office. Simpson said that ABC News anchor Cokie Roberts had gotten a letter postmarked Trenton, N.J.--where several letters containing anthrax, sent to other media and to Capitol Hill, originated. In fact, no such letter existed."

Lesson to young anchors-in-training: When you "dine out on a story," make sure it's a true one.

Meanwhile, network newsrooms have also suffered their first case of anthrax bravado. CBS's Dan Rather made headlines last week by refusing to be tested for anthrax--despite the fact that his assistant had contracted the skin form.

As Rather told Larry King, "We are absolutely determined that we are not going to run scared." (King, you won't be surprised to learn, responded with this clich du jour: "Hemingway described class as grace under pressure.") Plus which, Rather was consulting regularly with his personal doctor and with the New York City health department.

Now, while it may be admirable on the one hand to show a spirit of defiance to the anthrax attacker(s), it's a form of defiance that someone with a personal physician on call is in a uniquely cossetted position to send. What's more, it's probably the wrong message to send at a time when investigators are desperately trying to learn all they can about the anthrax attacks.

Rather's posturing aside, it might, after all, prove useful to epidemiologists and the FBI to know whether the letter that infected his assistant had also exposed him. Hard as it may be for anchors to accept, the story isn't always about them.

MACHIAVELLI FOR DUMMIES