Steven Emerson: Mayor Bloomberg Too Soft on Imam Jalil

By Andrew Cochran

The decision by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to suspend, but not fire, Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil for his outrageous comments ("We know that the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House, without a doubt...the Zionists of the media to dictate what Islam is to us") are provoking heavy criticism, including from Steven Emerson. It was Steve's group, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, which obtained an audio tape of his comments (also see this post on CAIR's support for Imam Jalil). Steve was on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" last night - here is the transcript with his criticism of Mayor Bloomberg:

Alan Colmes: Joining us now from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Steve Emerson. Steve, as I understand it, he was suspended for two weeks because he didn�t make it clear that those were private, not public, comments, not for the content of his speech. I like what Bloomberg said, which is, we can�t get involved in what people say. In a democracy, basically, people have different points of view. Punishing people for that is not what we do in America.

Steve Emerson: The question, Alan, is whether, in fact, his role as head of all chaplains for the correctional facilities in New York and as someone that is doing outreach to lots of Muslim inmates should be making statements that refer to the kufar, or infidel, that refer to the Zionists running the media, the fact that the President is a terrorist or the fact that a convicted cop killer, Jamil al-Amin, was set up. These are incendiary comments designed to inflame and the only question is why didn�t the mayor ask for him to repudiate his own comments?

Alan Colmes: Actually, he did say, �I�m sorry the statement was quoted out of context. It was offensive.� He also said that he respects people of all faiths and he is defended by people like Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, who is the chaplain of the fire department in New York; a conservative by the way. So, I think Mayor Bloomberg is on pretty strong ground here.

Steve Emerson: Except he did not repudiate it by saying that it was taken out of context. The words, I have them in front of me, were not taken out of context. The Mayor is treating his comments as if they were a slip of the tongue. I am sorry. How could he slip up nineteen times? The fact of the matter is that he was making these outrageous statements and the Mayor did not demand that he thoroughly disown them.

Sean Hannity: Steve, we didn�t take it out of context. That�s the point here. This is what he believes and that�s what�s scary to me, because if he believes that, and I don�t know what else he believes, but I have a sense we have a real extremist here. And what I also say, what my instinct tells me, is the Mayor is afraid. The Mayor doesn�t want to take on this issue. The Mayor wants this to blow over. Do you think my instincts are right?

Steve Emerson: Sean, I think your instincts are right on. I think that the Mayor is basically afraid of touching the larger issue of radical Islamic recruitment in the prison system and he doesn�t want to start up with the supporters of this Imam. But the fact of the matter is that celebrating free speech like this in a day like today is like celebrating free speech when David Duke makes a right-wing outrageous comment.

Sean Hannity: But that is the point. He is in a position where the public is paying his salary. He is in a position where he can influence a group of people and if he is holding these radical views, I would say he is unfit for that position. Is that fair?

Steve Emerson: I would say I think you are, again, right. The fact of the matter is, there is no doubt that he is entitled to hold his views�

Sean Hannity: He�s entitled to it, but not in that position.

Steve Emerson: Not in that position. It is not appropriate.

Alan Colmes: He has been investigated. He was defended. Rabbis defended him. He did get suspended.

Steve Emerson: He got suspended for the wrong reasons. It has only been two weeks and he is back on the job.

Alan Colmes: All right, thank you for being here, Steve.

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