On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, I walked down the hill to the 99-cent store to pick up some emergency candles and flashlights. We had suffered a fire in our basement the week before and were still without electricity in parts of the house.

The young man behind the counter wore Arabic headgear and the store radio was blasting Middle Eastern music. The shop was empty, and after I collected my purchases and brought them to the counter, I told the young man that he should change the station. He didn’t. I’m not sure if he even understood me. A man who was entering the store as I left heard the music and abruptly walked out.

I thought of that afternoon the other day after hearing the news of the foiled airplane bomb plot and the capture of alleged terrorists in England. My source for international news is always lucianne.com, because there are articles posted from around the globe. Several indicated that the British Muslim community was worried about a backlash and reprisals. What balderdash. Britain lost 67 citizens in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and yet radical Muslims in 2002 felt safe enough to hold a convention lauding the attacks.

Here in New York, the site of the heinous, cowardly attacks, there were very few notable reprisal incidents. One neighborhood deli owner claimed that her son, Abdul, was beaten up in Brooklyn, but as far as I know there were no incidents resembling what we’ve seen happen in the Middle East. No one was beheaded. No stores were burned down and the owners strung up on a bridge. Americans did not riot or demand that all Muslims leave the country. No imams or mullahs were murdered, as was a Roman Catholic priest, Andrea Santori, who was shot in Turkey by a man who shouted “Allahu Akbar,” presumably in retaliation for the publication of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. Islamic fascists murdered thousands of innocent Americans on 9/11, and how did this country react toward the Muslim community? Americans behaved like civilized people.

For some strange reason, I’m on the mailing list of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and I keep getting press releases from their spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper. While he invariably expresses regrets for any outrageous murderous activity involving a Muslim, there’s always a “but” in his statement that more or less blames the incident on America or Israel.

In CAIR’s latest release, following the news of the airline terror plot that is qualified as “alleged,” Mr. Hooper writes: “American Muslims have consistently condemned all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by individuals, groups or states. We repudiate anyone or any group that plans or carries out a terrorist act. We welcome early actions by law enforcement authorities against credible threats to the safety of the traveling public.”

Oh, really? I happen to have Muslim neighbors who hail originally from Albania. Staten Island actually has a very large Muslim community. Nearly all of the 99-cent stores are operated by Middle Eastern and Asian owners. Palestinian Americans for many years operated the D &L deli on Broad Street, and insisted they were not political. Nevertheless, on the counter were collection boxes for a Muslim charity in the Middle East.

I don’t recall ever seeing demonstrations by any of these people or groups condemning the 9/11 attacks or the beheadings of Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg, or others. I also have to wonder if CAIR is condemning the actions of the two Pakistanis, one from Staten Island, arrested in a plot to bomb the subways. I never received an e-mail with Mr. Hooper’s apology.

In another press release from CAIR, he writes, “As the largest American Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, it is our religious and civic duty to reach out to all Americans to reaffirm Islam’s teachings of peace, justice and tolerance for all.”

Somehow that message is not being relayed to certain followers of radical Islam, who seem to have little tolerance for non-Muslims.

In countries where civility reigns, we can have dissent without violence. When the Indian prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, visited Staten Island in September 2000, a group of 50 angry Pakistanis protested his appearance over the ongoing Kashmir conflict, yet they did so peaceably. In America, cartoonists are free to ridicule all.

If CAIR is truly concerned with demonstrating how peaceful Islam is, it needs to stop equivocating and must finally condemn radical Islam outright — no ifs, ands, or “buts.”

Otherwise, Mr. Hooper, please remove me from your list.

acolon@nysun.com