With all of the verified, documented information that has come to light about the Council on American Islamic Relations and their ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood—not to mention their status as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding trial—there’s simply no excuse for a context-free, totally whitewashed piece like this, even if it is in a relatively small Oklahoma newspaper: Murrah Building bombing shaped Muslim organization.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations was a fledgling organization less than a year old when its co-founder, Nihad Awad, received an urgent telephone call from Oklahoma City in April 1995.

It was just days after a truck bomb blew apart the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

The Oklahoma City bombing forever changed the organization created to foster communication between American Muslims and the communities in which they lived, Awad said at the recent Council on American-Islamic Relations Oklahoma banquet in Oklahoma City. “That event shed light on the challenges that faced our community. It started a movement,” he said. …

Saturday, Awad challenged Oklahoma Muslims to speak out for themselves and other Muslim Americans.

America, he said, is at a crossroads, and American Muslims must help the country correctly define who they are. American Muslims are often viewed with suspicion or seen as a threat, Awad said. Many may have been born in another country and have an accent.

Awad said they should not use these factors as excuses not to voice their concerns when the civil rights of Muslims and others are being violated. ”America needs to be reminded that we are equal under God and under the law,” he said.

“The Oklahoma City bombing was a reminder — when people placed blame on us. We have to communicate. We have to let them know that Islam is peace. Islam is love.”

Here’s much more information about Nihad “Islam is Peace and Love” Awad, who stated openly in 1994, “I am in support of the Hamas movement:” Nihad Awad :: Apologists or Extremists.

Shame on newsok.com and the The Oklahoman for publishing such a blatant piece of dishonest-by-omission, pro-extremist propaganda. Was religion writer Carla Hinton unaware of CAIR’s and Awad’s histories, or did she deliberately leave all of that out?