OSINFO - Open Sources Information

Special Dispatch - Saudi Arabia/Jihad & Terrorism
August 9, 2005
No.954

Interview on Saudi Government TV With Prominent Egyptian Professor: Muslims
Had Nothing to Do with 9/11; Dirty Zionist Hands Behind It

The following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian professor Abd
Al-Sabour Shahin, which aired on Saudi Channel 1 on August 8, 2005. Dr.
Shahin is head of the Shari'a faculty at Al-Ahzar University,(1) the most
prestigious seat of learning in Sunni Islam, and is also a lecturer at Cairo
University.(2) (To view this clip, visit www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=800 .)

"Our enemies weave many lies about us, which we are not necessarily aware
of. For example: One day, we awoke to the crime of 9/11, which hit the
tallest buildings in New York, the Empire State Building [sic]. There is no
doubt that not a single Arab or Muslim had anything to do with these events.
The incident was fabricated as a pretext to attack Islam and Muslims. The
plan was to take over the world's energy sources, and to achieve this
control by force and not by agreement or negotiations, by interests, free
trade, or anything like that. This is what they wanted.

"So this incident was fabricated - and Allah knows that the Arabs and
Muslims are innocent of it - in order to serve as a pretext to attack Islam
and the Muslims.

"All of a sudden, after we had been accustomed to considering America a
rational and balanced country... All of a sudden, it violates international
conventions, cancels treaties, ignores the U.N., acts on its own accord,
attacks nations, kills innocent people, and claims it has the right to do
so - and all this is based on lies.

"These were lies from beginning to end, and we were not used to lying - not
in policy, not in our discourse, and not in the media. Imagine what crisis
the Arab and Islam nation finds itself in, in the midst of these peculiar
events, which we cannot explain or believe.

"All of a sudden, we were framed for an international crime, on the basis of
lies.

"I believe a dirty Zionist hand carried out this act. Zionism has taken the
opportunity to escalate the war in Palestine, killing hundreds of thousands
so far, while we watch from the sidelines in astonishment and ask: What's
going on?"

Endnotes:
(1) Daily Star (Lebanon), September 15, 2004.
(2) For more on Egyptian professor Abd Al-Sabour, see Special Dispatch No.
794, "Reactions to Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's Fatwa Calling for the Abduction and
Killing of American Civilians in Iraq," October 6, 2005
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP79404 .