What makes Kevin Barrett tick? - The Capital Times

As Barrett sunk deeper into the "9/11 truth movement," founding the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth, he was also finishing his UW dissertation. Schueb, his dissertation adviser, said he had no idea that Barrett was involved in the movement until he saw Barrett speaking on Library Mall.

The galvanizing moment, Barrett said, came when he invited Griffin, the author, to speak at UW. About 450 people attended the speech at Bascom Hall in April 2005, and it was rebroadcast on C-SPAN. The broadcast and publicity around the event attracted people from around the world to Barrett's cause, helping make the alliance a leader in the movement, with about 1,000 supporters.

During the speech, Griffin made the case that it was implausible the Pentagon could be hit by an airplane, since it is "surely the best defended building on the planet." The U.S. military has the best radar systems in the world and "does not miss anything occurring in North American airspace," he added.

In recent weeks, politicians have sought Barrett's ouster as a University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer on Islam in an elective, four-credit course. Provost Patrick Farrell last week reaffirmed the university's offer for him to teach a class this fall, citing the university's tradition of academic freedom.

Barrett, who has taught folklore at UW-Madison and Islam at Edgewood College, says he may apply for a tenure-track position at UW-Madison, if the right job becomes available.

Now that he's famous, Barrett's views have many people calling him crazy, but Leder, his old friend, insists that he is not.

"Kevin has always explored," Leder said. "He's never taken anything at face value."