The imam of the Newburgh mosque where the Bronx-plot terror cell was organized has worked for more than 20 years in the New York state prison system converting inmates to Islam — and was hired by the radical Muslim chaplain banned for praising the 9/11 hijackers.
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Imam Salahuddin Muhammad is the spiritual leader of the Masjid Al-Ikhlas, the Newburgh mosque where the four terrorist wannabes met.
Muhammad also has worked as a prison chaplain at Fishkill Correctional Facility since 1985 — where alleged Bronx terrorist James Cromitie was imprisoned in 1991.
Muhammad was recruited to work in the prison system by the controversial Warith Deen Umar, who was booted after he reportedly said Muslims “secretly admire” the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Muhammad converted to Islam when he was in prison, said Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem, who has known Muhammad for 20 years. Muhammad served 12 years for robbery, according to a 2003 report in The Wall Street Journal.
Muhammad, who also serves as a chaplain at Bard College, yesterday dismissed his connection to Umar, who was regarded as one of the most influential Muslim clerics in the vast state prison system.
“This brother has his own mind,” Muhammad said. “We’re not teaching hatred. I love this country.”
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He said he only knew one of the four plotters, Cromitie, by sight. He said he never met the other three accused.
“I don’t teach that stuff,” said Muhammad.
But Muhammad is not without controversy.
During a stint as chaplain at the prison in Beacon, Muhammad, a Sunni, sowed division within Islam by referring to Shia convicts who adhered to another branch of the Islamic faith as “infiltrators and snitches” during his Friday sermons, according to prisoner complaints reported in the Journal in 2003.
Umar worked for 25 years in the prison system as a chaplain and boasted that they were the “perfect recruitment and training ground for radicalism and the Islamic religion.”