I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound much like the Tulsa that I left a couple of decades ago. On Oct. 29th, a piece by Tulsa Muslim, Jamal Miftah decrying violent acts by Al Qaeda, was printed in the Reader’s Forum op-ed section of the Tulsa World. [Link is overloaded or inactive at this time.] Thanks to BatesLine Blog I can share with you some excerpts of Miftah’s letter.

I appeal to the Muslim youth in particular and Muslims of the world in general to rise up and start jihad against the killers of humanity and help the civilized world to bring these culprits to justice and prove that Islam is not a religion of hatred and aggression.

I appeal to the Muslim clerics around the world that, rather than issuing empty fatwas condemning suicide bombing, they should issue a fatwa for the death of such scoundrels and barbarians who have taken more than 4,267 lives of innocent people in the name of Islam and have carried out more than 24 terrorist attacks on civilian installations throughout the world. This does not include the chilling number of deaths because of such activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is well over 250,000.

I appeal to al-Zawahri and his band of thugs to hand themselves over to justice and stop spreading evil and killing innocent humans around the world in the name of Islam. Their time is limited and Muslims of the world will soon rise against them to apprehend them and bring them to justice.

For his condemnation of those radical Islamists that are denigrating The Religion Of Peace with murder and mayhem all around the globe, Jamal Miftah’s reward was being expelled from his mosque, the Islamic Center of Tulsa. Another Tulsa blogger, T-Town Tommy comments:

On a personal note: The Mosque in question is in my neighborhood. I have lived in the area now for two years and have had nothing but positive experiences with those attending worship. Parking can be a bit of a problem during prayer as their mosque has grown in members in recent years. However as someone trying to be a good neighbor, open minded and accepting; I find this story very disturbing. The actions of some mosque members and their leadership in reaction to the letter would lead outsiders, like myself, to question; if they are not “anti-terrorist” then what are they?

Although defended by some in his mosque, Miftah was told that he could not come back to worship until he denounced what he had written and apologized to all Muslims for saying untruths about Islam.

Although our political leaders want to keep telling us that we do not have a problem with Islam, but with those radicals that twist the ROP for their own ends, when what are supposedly moderate Muslims cannot tolerate one of their own condemning barbaric acts committed in the name of Islam — what else can an intelligent, open-minded person conclude? There are only two answers to that:

1) The moderate Muslims have absolutely no power to control the radical element within their midst, or

2) There are no real moderate Muslims.

Neither answer gives this ol’ Okie any comfort.

SeeDubya is keeping track of Wahhabis influence on Muslims all across the US, with links to a laundry list of information about this topic by, what do you know, it’s BatesLine blog again !

Gotta put this Michael Bates on the blogroll . . .(db)

Technorati Tags: Tulsa Muslims, Jamal Miftah, Islamic Center of Tulsa

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 1:18 pm and is filed under A Post 9/11 World, Islam, Radical Islam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

Recently Posted:

• “Young Mattie Fein” Political Ad — Hot Linkage & More . . .
• Just Bloggin’ Around: VJ Day Video, Ground Zero Mosque, Obaminations & More . . .
• We The People — An Open Letter To President Obama
• Remembering Annie & Some Hard-Life Lessons
• Obama’s Nightmare In The Gulf
• Obama’s Exectuive Order Banning Federal Funding of Abortion Proves To Be Just More B.S.
• American Women — Takin’ Names, Kickin’ Butt!
• Now Obama’s F’ing Up NASA!
• Happy 4th of July Y’all!
• VOTE!