Local mosque lifts ban on outspoken member
By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
12/1/2006

The governing board of Tulsa's Al-Salam mosque ruled Wednesday night that a Pakistani native who had been banned from the mosque can return.
Houssam Elsoueissi, president of the operating council at the mosque, said he would announce at Friday's service that Jamal Miftah is free to attend services as long as there is no disturbance, and that no one at the mosque should confront him.

Miftah was banned last week after a confrontation at the mosque over a guest commentary he wrote that appeared Oct. 29 in the Tulsa World.
In it, Miftah criticized Osama bin Laden and other terrorists and suggested some U.S. mosques have been collecting money for them.
Miftah filed a police report stating that he was backed up against a wall after Nov. 18 prayers by two men who harassed him and called him anti-Muslim.

He said he was not struck, but was shaken up by the incident, in which one man waved a shoe in his face, an Arab insult.
He said he filed a police report about the incident because he feared for the safety of his family.

Elsoueissi said he talked to police about getting a restraining order against Miftah to prevent further incidents at the mosque. Mosque spokeswoman Sheryl Siddiqui said the matter should have been quietly resolved, but because of the media and the Internet, "It's had such legs."
The story was carried by local television and radio stations and spread nationwide on the Internet.

"This was not about the article; it was about a disturbance in the mosque," she said. "We agree with most of his article, except the one statement that American mosques support terrorists.

"Our mosque does not, and I don't know of any that do," she said.
Tulsan Mujeeb Cheema, executive director of North American Islamic Trust, said Miftah's views on bin Laden were "mainline views among American Muslims."

However, he said, "I was surprised that a person who has been in the U.S. for only three years, and not part of any national Muslim organization, would speak so confidently about Islamic institutions in the U.S."
Miftah said he has been shocked by the amount of attention the incident created.

He said he has been contacted by people from across the country, Muslim and non-Muslim, nearly all of them expressing support.
John Swails, chairman of the Department of History, Humanity and Government at Oral Roberts University, contacted Miftah after hearing about the controversy while he was traveling.

"I told him it was a principled and courageous stand, and that I knew it exposed him to certain vulnerabilities," Swails said.

"For someone like Miftah to take this stand has far-reaching implications," he said. "He could be speaking to many other moderate Muslims who are sitting quietly by."

Miftah said he originally was told not to return to the mosque unless he made a written apology.
"I'm disturbed," he said. "I'm a very proud Muslim.

Elsoueissi said Tulsa Muslims had no disagreement with Miftah's comments about bin Laden, but strongly disagreed with his statement that U.S. mosques support terrorists.
Miftah moved to Tulsa three years ago from Malakand Agency in northwest Pakistan, a tribal area, where he had been a banker and an industrialist. He is now the credit manager for a large Tulsa firm that he did not want to identify.

He said he and his wife and four children are happy to be in the United States, and are all doing well.
"This country has provided me shelter," he said.


http://www.tulsaworld.com/NewsStory....A16_Local20348