Tulsa suburb slaps down its Muslim citizens — and the US Constitution | Opinion
City Council members in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow didn’t just slap Muslims in the face when they voted not to allow a mosque to be built there.
It was an assault on American freedom, specifically, the guarantee of freedom of religion in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The council voted down the mosque Monday night after another four-hour display marked by self-professed Christians breaking the Ninth Commandment and bearing false witness against their neighbors.
Like this guy: “I just think that it’s pretty obvious the way that the citizens feel about this, and I think that their input on what is culturally accepted in the area should be taken into account. And one of the first ladies that spoke also talked about the numerous ties to terrorism . . . But anyways, I think a lot of people have been woken up by this issue, and I hope that you represent the citizens when you make your vote, so they’ll vote you back in office.”
The council meeting wasn’t quite the anti-Islamic slam-a-rama that the planning commission hearing had been.
There was a reason for that.
Opponents held an anti-mosque meeting, attended by hundreds, a few days before the council meeting, and told everyone to soft-pedal their Muslims-are-a-Satanic-cult rhetoric and complain about traffic and sewage disposal instead.
Wink wink, nod nod.
Muslim teen schools City Council on rights
The highlight of the meeting was when a teenage Muslim girl used her allotted three minutes to school the council and the crowd on American rights and comparative religion.
“I’m honestly so surprised today when I came in and saw how many people really disliked me for my beliefs,” she said. “With over 5,300 churches in just Oklahoma and only 12 mosques, you all are throwing a fit over one more. And you all try to use the excuse of traffic or land issues for the reason that you oppose, but really it’s just racism. This country is not a theocracy government, and the U.S. is called the melting pot for a reason. We have Jews, Hindus, Catholics, atheists and even Satanists . . . We are all our own person and shouldn’t be deprived of our rights.
“Our religion is filled with love and kindness, and it is very similar to Christianity. And in fact, do we respect other religions? It is quoted in our Quran ‘indeed, the believers, Jews, Sabians and Christians, whoever truly believes in God in the last day and does good, there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.’ Christianity is also built around love, which some of you have lacked very recently to do so.”
I’ll never live in Broken Arrow, but if I did, I’d rather live next-door to her and her family than the guy who wants to enforce what he believes is “culturally accepted in the area.”
Freedom of religion isn’t the only part of the First Amendment that was violated at the council meeting. There was also freedom of speech.
The council abruptly shut down public comments with speakers left to go, after council member Lisa Ford announced “I think we’ve heard as much as we’re going to hear. I haven’t really heard anything new.”
That went over poorly with mosque opponents who had waited four hours to speak. They booed and shouted anti-Muslim tirades from the audience and at least two were ejected by police.
They needn’t have gotten so upset. The only reason Ford wanted to close the hearing was to get on with going through the motions of a decision made before the meeting started.
It was left to the council’s only Black member, Justin Green, to explain that it’s land use, and only land use, guiding the decision — despite the fact that the planning commission and city’s professional staff studied the project, found no unusual issues, and recommended approval.
“My vote, my decision, is not based on racism or any of these other Islamophobic terms or whatever. Because if you notice, if you look up here, one of these things is not like the others. And it wasn’t very long ago that a person who looked like me would not be able to sit in a seat like this,” Green said.
“We are not here to discuss freedom of religion,” he said.
With all due respect to the council member, the first sentence in the Broken Arrow council’s oath of office is to “support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Last I checked, that includes freedom of religion.
Denying Muslim residents a place to worship is as much a civil rights violation as the discriminatory practices of the past that kept people who looked like Green from sitting in the seat he’s in.
An attorney general worse than Kobach
The anti-mosque hysteria got a huge boost from Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma’s attorney general/governor candidate/Islamophobic political opportunist.
Days before the council meeting, Drummond announced he would use the powers of his office to investigate where the Muslims got the money to buy the land for a mosque, in a press release that was long on anti-Islamic insinuations and devoid of actual evidence.
That’s been asked and answered. Like Wichita, Tulsa’s Muslim community has a disproportionate number of physicians, engineers and other highly paid professionals. They donated to build a new mosque because their current one got too crowded.
It’s hard to imagine that anyone could elect a more prejudiced attorney general than Kansas did with Kris Kobach, but Oklahoma somehow seems to have managed it.
By the way, the Islamic medical professionals in Tulsa also volunteer their time and use their mosque for a free clinic providing medical care to the area’s poorest residents, no matter their religion — and had planned on doing the same for Broken Arrow.
So to Gentner Drummond, four out of five council members, and the hundreds of Broken Arrow citizens who rallied to prevent the “Muslim takeover” of their town, I would say this:
I’d love to be at the hospital next time you have a car accident and find yourself in an emergency room being treated by a Muslim doctor.
You’d have nothing to worry about.
Because in this case, they’re not the ones acting like the Taliban. You are.
