May 1995 Oklahoma City

May 1995 Spillover of a Disaster

by staff

Form the first moment Muslim Americans watched the horror of the Oklahoma City bombing, they knew they were struck twice. First, by the sheer size of the calamity that his innocent citizens and children, and second, by the suspicion that they would probably have another hate wave to deal with. Here is how their fears were proven right.

The earliest victim was Abrahim Ahmad; an American Jordanian who was hauled back to the U.S. to be questioned by FBI. "I was treated like dirt, like a dog. I was pronounced guilty by the media," said Ahmad, who just happened to be flying to Europe less than two hours after the explosion." They have spat on my wife, they have put trash on the lawn, filthy things..." he added.

Perhaps the most devastating spillover was what happened to Sahar Al-Saidi in Oklahoma City. Haidar Al-Saidi's 6 months-pregnant wife was alone at home, when angry assailants banged the doors and smashed windows, responding to TV rumors that Middle Easter people were responsible for the deadly bombing of the federal building. Fearing for her life, she locked herself in the bathroom and in the tension and anxiety, went into labor to give birth to the only Oklahoma bombing victim who did not die of the bomb's blast, but of the blast of Tabloid Media and people's ignorance.

The rush to judgment led to bomb threats, harassing phone calls and vandalism against Muslim groups, mosques, and Arab-Americans across the United States. A Muslim couple in Norman, OK received a threatening personal response. Norman Police Lt. Leonard Judy said the Islamic Society of Norman reported an onslaught of threatening calls and death threat calls after the bombing. Ninety miles up the road, in Stillwater, the window of the Islamic Society was shot at with a pellet gun sometime after 2 p.m. Wednesday, said Stillwater Police Chief Norman McNickle.

Similar incidents happened across the country, even here in Columbus, where local media coverage was responsible. Community leaders reported to IQRA! of at least two threats on the answering machine and one community member spoke of her colleague at work who called her 'murderer' the day after the bombing. the local MSA president had police check the place for Friday prayer for fear of bombs.

If the media condemnation was - to put it mildly - explainable given the anxiety associated with the blast, the attitude that followed was certainly not. Grieving Muslims, who (according to AP) have contributed to the relief efforts, and collected donations, were not acknowledge.
In Oklahoma City, Muslims were excluded from Sunday's prayer service led by President Clinton and the Rev. Billy Graham. "We have the same grief and sorrow, and we were told we could not be accommodated," said Rehab Robyn Assaf, a Muslim-American teacher at an Oklahoma City mosque.

The second event IQRA! know about happened in Tempe, Arizona's State Press, the student newspaper of the Arizona State University. It featured a cartoon showing a picture of the Prophet which is unacceptable in Islam - among three other pictures. On top of the pictures a sign that reads "Dead Religious Leaders. "The first picture has a name tag of "J. Smith" showing probably a man resembling the Mormon leader carrying a Bible and smiling. The second picture shows a grim-faced fiercely looking bearded man holding a large dagger/sword dripping with blood. The name tag reads "Muhammad". the third picture is showing a Buddhist monk with the name tag"'Buda". The last picture frame is empty, but has a name tag reads "Jesus". One police officer points to the empty frame and asks another officer: "What happened to this one?" the other officer answers: "It's empty."

The MSA of ASU at Tempe along with the Islamic Cultural Center of Tempe met twice with the "State Press" editorial board and the cartoonist Bryce Morgan, and demanded that an official apology be published in the paper. They wanted a statement from them that this cartoon is inaccurate, inappropriate depiction of our Prophet (PBUH). The demands were denied.

In spite of some serious inaccuracies and false hints from major TV Channels and newspapers (including unfortunately CNN) there were no acknowledgement of wrong or apologies from ABC or NBC that hosted numerous self-proclaimed terrorist experts throwing hate and conspiracy theories here and there (except for the responsible coverage of the Columbus Dispatch and Lantern on the local level). As far as we know, no channel apologized for the 'mistake' (e.g. the broadcast of two "white male" suspects. Channel 6 by Charlene Brown still associated them with Middle Eastern descent!)

The Local Reaction - How the ISGC reacted in a few hours

by Ayman Ismail

As soon as the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC) and the MSA members heard the news of the Oklahoma City bombing, they knew it meant trouble. The pessimism was based on previous experience for the Gulf War, the World Trade Center bombing and the PBS documentary "Jihad in America."

Since the media was already speculating on the involvement of some Islamic groups, the BOT of the ISGC found that it is important to meet and discuss some action plans. The meeting was arranged within an hour. 7:30 pm at room 11 at the OSU Fawcett Center for the second day was the place, all TV channels were contacted - in person - in addition to the Columbus Dispatch. The idea was to involve as many people from the different Islamic organizations in the city. However, it was difficult to reach everyone within this short period of time.

With the grace of Allah, those able to attend represented most of the organizations of the Columbus Islamic community. Many options were on the table, including the press release and media coverage. The controversy was that it might be early to have a statement to the media which might further expose the community. The discussions finally resulted in a draft statement for the media, a spokesperson and a list of what to say and what not to say. At 9:30 p.m., the taping for TV news began with a question and answer session following it. What finally aired were two minutes of 35 minutes in tape that did not include the press statement! The following day Channels 10 and 4 asked for representative to talk on TV. the ISGC selected Sr. Hiba Nasser and Br. Brian Clouse. By April 27th, the Dawaa Committee had arranged for an Open Forum on Islam with Dr. Shaker El-Sayed from ISNA at the Ohio Union.

MSA vice president Abdullah Al-Amiri advises the community to be cautious and act responsibly. "We always emphasize to everyone including the media that painting everyone with the same brush will do nothing but increase the number of hate crimes."
He asks that all Muslims who receive any form of threat to immediately contact the police and report it to the BOT. It is important to keep track of such acts to make a case to the officials and to the media about the seriousness of this issue should legal action be deemed necessary, then this information will be useful. This also should be reported to the hotline established by ICNA [Islamic Circle of North America] at *******.