Surprise, Surprise...

Hatred and violence begin at home ... or with one's religion. Let's hear all the "moderate Muslims" come out and denounce the following statements.

The father of one of the September 11 hijackers said today he had no sorrow for what had happened in London and claimed more terrorist attacks would follow.

Egyptian Mohamed el-Amir, whose son Mohamed Atta commandeered the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York, said there was a double standard in the way the world viewed the victims in London and victims in the Islamic world.

El-Amir said the attacks in the US and the July 7 attacks in Britain were the beginning of what would be a 50-year religious war, in which there would be many more fighters like his son.

Speaking to a CNN producer in his apartment in the upper-middle-class Cairo suburb of Giza, he declared that terror cells around the world were a "nuclear bomb that has now been activated and is ticking".

Cursing in Arabic, el-Amir also denounced Arab leaders and Muslims who condemned the London attacks as being traitors and non-Muslims.

He passionately vowed that he would do anything within his power to encourage more attacks.

This would be the same father who, immediately following the September 11th atrocity, publiclly denied that his son was in any way involved in the attacks.

Mohamed Atta, one of the alleged hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11 that flew into the northern tower of New York's World Trade Center on 11 September, is innocent of the charge, according to his father, lawyer Mohamed El- Amir Atta.

At a news conference at the Foreign Press Association on Monday, the father said his son had telephoned him three days after the attacks from Hamburg, Germany, where he is studying. He denied his son had travelled to the US.

Atta Sr believes his son had been kidnapped and that he might have been killed by his kidnappers.

"I was in Alexandria when my son called. I had no knowledge of the attacks as I don't read newspapers or watch television while on vacation. We had a normal father-son chat," Atta Sr said.

Upon his return to Cairo, the father was apparently informed by his daughters of the attacks and the accusations against his son. "I saw his pictures in the newspapers and was dumbfounded and upset that my son was accused of mass murder," he said.

At the time, Atta's father roundly denounced the attacks, calling them against Islam.

Atta Sr began the news conference by condemning the assaults on the US, citing a verse from the Holy Qur'an that may be translated as: "He who unjustly takes a soul has, in effect, taken so many more lives." He then gave an account of his son's childhood, describing him as a "wonderful" and "pious" boy.

Atta's father then accused the US of faking his son's involvement in the attacks.

Atta Sr said the photo published in American newspapers showing his son along with an alleged Saudi suspect, Abdel-Aziz El-Emari, on their way from Portland airport to Boston was a fake.

El-Emari was later said to have been found alive in Riyadh.

Commenting on reports by US officials that an Arabic airplane navigation manual, the Holy Qur'an and a United Arab Emirates passport in Atta's name had been found in a car at Boston airport, he said, "I need the US officials to tell me how my son could have been at two places at the same time? If he was heading for Boston when his photo was taken at Portland airport, how could he have parked his car at Boston airport?"

Asked why his son was seen on video at Boston airport on the same day of the attacks, Atta replied: "I have strong evidence that this video recording was forged. The man in the video is bigger than my son. Moreover, the Saudi national [El-Emari] who appeared behind my son in the shots was in Riyadh at the time of the attacks and is still alive. Now, you tell me how this could all be authentic."

Finally, Atta's father laid the blame for September 11th, not at the hands of Islamic extremists, nor his son, but at a much more likely foe.

Atta Sr accused the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, of being behind the New York and Washington attacks.

When Atta's father blamed Israel and the Mossad for September 11, it should have been immediately clear that his facade of grief and righteous indignation were merely a front. The younger Atta clearly learned his Islamist zeal and thrist for violence at the feet of his father. The senior Atta's differing statements - the latter presumably made now that, almost four years later, he no longer fears American retaliation for his son's crimes, and now speaks his mind frankly - offers a reality check regarding Muslims who claim to denounce Islamist terror. In short, talk is cheap. People lie. And Atta Sr.'s comments reflect the opinions of far more Muslims than the West's PC/multiculturalist-deluded leaders want to believe.