Excerpt:
A radical New York imam who was once investigated as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center will share the stage Saturday night as a featured guest and speaker when the Council on American-Islamic Relations celebrates its 15th anniversary in Washington.
Siraj Wahhaj, imam of the Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y., became the first Muslim to lead the opening prayer in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1991. Four years later, he was a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called "blind sheik" convicted of conspiring to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993. Although Wahhaj was never charged, then-U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White identified him in 1995 in a list of "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators."
Also speaking at the event will be the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Stephen Schwartz, executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, a Washington-based think tank, calls Wahhaj one of the most prominent and strident African-American Islamic preachers in America.