Blogger Bates Examines Council's Muslim Agenda

The controversy over gift copies of the Quran for Oklahoma legislators now floods blogs from one end of the country to the other. In Tulsa, blogger Michael Bates did some digging and offers this thought, part of a much longer and thoughtful piece you can read here.

Writes Bates: "Few people seem to have noticed that these Korans were being offered by an official Oklahoma governmental body, the Governor's Ethnic-American Advisory Council (GEAAC), established by executive order of Gov. Brad Henry in 2004. (The chair of which is Marjaneh Seirafi-Pour, at left with a copy of the Quran outside the Capitol.) That link will take you to an earlier item I wrote about this group. (Note: This link takes you to an article Bates wrote in May about the members of the Council; it raises many questions, including some about the associates of Council member Malaka A. Elyazgi's husband Mohamed: "He was quoted as a spokesman for the mosque in Norman following the October 1, 2005, suicide bombing on the OU campus. He was a business partner in a small shop in Oklahoma City with Mufid Abdulqader, who was indicted as a fundraiser for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, of which Abdulqader's half-brother is the supreme political leader. (Abdulqader's story is frightening. He was a civil engineering student at OSU, worked at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and then went to work as an engineer with the City of Dallas. In his spare time, his rock band performed at Hamas fundraisers, where he sang lyrics like, "With Koran and Jihad, we will gain our homes back, hey, hey, hey! My precious eyes are for Palestine, the agony of death is precious, killing Jews . . . Death to Jews, is precious. Jews will not fear threats, only action. So Hamas, hit them with the shoe bottoms of Islam and Hamas!")

"Officially the GEAAC 'is to be made up of from five to 15 representatives of Ethnic Americans of the Middle East/Near East community of the state of Oklahoma.' You may be tempted to take that at face value, to assume that GEAAC exists to serve Oklahomans of any religion and any ethnicity with roots in the 'Middle East/Near East.'

"But every public action this council has taken so far has concerned the Islamic faith -- encouraging schools to grant excused absences for Muslim holy days, asking for rebuttal time on OETA to the PBS series 'America at a Crossroads' because, according to the council's chairman, 'we thought there were a couple of segments that did not put Islam in a positive light,' and now passing out Qurans at the state legislature. While those actions would be reasonable for a private organization representing Oklahoma Muslims, they don't suggest a government-sponsored council seeking to represent the diversity of religions in the Middle East."

In Oklahoma City, attorney Mitchell Gray has written about some of the connections that exist: "Mufid Abdul Qader was one of the incorporators of the ISGOC (Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City) mosque where Webb once was the Imam. Qader is currently under Federal indictment in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) case out of Richardson, Texas near Dallas. Qader’s half brother, Khalid Mishaal, is a Syrian who is a high ranking Hamas military executive and a known terrorist. Mufid Qader traveled with a troupe that performed skits portraying violent killings of Jews included at a 1992 conference in Oklahoma City. Mufid Qader is considered by the US government to have been a top fundraiser for Hamas. Hamas is responsible for many deadly attacks including some attacks where even Americans have been killed. The HLF is alleged to be a front for the Hamas terrorist organization through its fundraising efforts.

"A co-founder of the ISGOC along with Mufid Qader is Mohammed Elyazgi who, like Mufid was, is an engineer at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. His wife Malaka is on current governor Brad Henry’s Ethnic Advisory Board." Read all of Gray's article by clicking http://www.newswithviews.com/guest_opinion/guest79.htm.

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