One of the principal organizers of a “Peace Ring” event in Oslo is a “9/11 Denier” – someone who denies that the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was committed not by Arab terrorists, but by Jews. Ali Chishti, one of eight organizers of the joint Jewish-Muslim event, which was supposed to promote co-existence, said in 2008 that the evidence showed that Jews were the mostly likely suspects behind the 9/11 attacks – as well as behind the attacks in Mumbai that year.

Chishti was one of eight organizers of an event Saturday which saw about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, make a “peace ring” around Oslo’s only synagogue, as a symbolic protection of the building. The event was held in response to the attack last week on a synagogue in Copenhagen last weekend, in which a Jewish security guard was killed.

In an interview Saturday with Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, Chishti confirmed that he had made a speech in Oslo in 2008 saying that the Jews were behind 9/11, JTA reported. “There were several thousand Jews away from work in the World Trade Center, and why there were more Jews in Mumbai when Pakistani terrorists attacked than usual?,” he said. “Jews are a small group, but everyone knows that they have a lot of power.”

In the Verdens Gang interview Chishti said that his views had since changed. While he may feel differently about Jews, though, he dislikes Israel because “it is an occupying force that has been condemned in several United Nations resolutions. “I think it is important to distinguish between being critical of Israel and anti-Semitism,” he added.

At the event, a large crowd, chanting “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” was addressed by Zeeshan Abdullah, one of the organizers of the event, who said “There are many more peace mongers than warmongers. There’s still hope for humanity, for peace and love, across religious differences and backgrounds.”

About 1,000 Jews live in Norway. Estimates of the Muslim population range from 150,00 to 200,000.