Muslim Day at the Capitol crowd urged to be ‘civically courageous’

More than 100 people registered for the ninth annual “Muslim Day at the Capitol” hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma Chapter. Several organizers said the crowd was smaller than in previous years because of spring break.

Imad Enchassi, senior imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, said the event typically draws a large contingent of students, teachers and some parents from Mercy School, an Islamic school in northwest Oklahoma City, and a similar school in Tulsa, but the schools were out for break.

Still, there were plenty of youths and young adults among the crowd that gathered on the second-floor rotunda and a meeting space for brief opening remarks, break-out sessions and lunch. Former U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn gave the keynote speech, and the group gathered for prayer after the last session.

Masood Abdul-Haqq, CAIR-OK’s board chairman, encouraged the crowd to take seriously the event’s theme, “Being Civically Courageous.”

“This place is literally yours,” he said. “We’re literally in the building that everybody in here is here to serve you. Your tax dollars literally pay for this place, so never let somebody tell you that you don’t belong, and never allow anyone make you feel other than.”

Adam Soltani, CAIR-OK executive director, emphasized the prevailing message of the day.

He reminded the group that a former Republican state representative, John Bennett, called him and Enchassi “terrorists” when they showed up for a hearing on an interim study on radical Islam, Shariah law, the Muslim Brotherhood and the radicalization process held several years ago at the state Capitol. Soltani said he and Enchassi sat in “silent protest” to the proceedings, and the important takeaway was that they kept showing up at the Capitol to discuss key issues despite such incidents.

“Things will only be good when we choose to be engaged and when we keep pushing for change,” he said.

Meanwhile, the absence of protesters was noticed.

“It’s happily boring,” Jennifer Hund, director of CAIR-OK’s Resource Center for Afghan Refugees, said in reference to the lack of anti-Islam demonstrations.

In previous years, particularly the first four or five, demonstrators stood outside the Capitol greeting Muslims with anti-Islam signs and rhetoric as they walked into the building. Starting with the first “Muslim Day at the Capitol,” spiritual leaders and individuals from other faith traditions created what they described as an “interfaith corridor of support” to welcome Muslims with positive greetings.

On Monday, Hund and other interfaith supporters stood near the Capitol’s south entrance once again to welcome Muslims.

Marshall Gimpel, congregational president of First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City, said the lack of protesters was a sign of the success of the “corridor of support.”

“We’re just out here showing support for our fellow residents and citizens of Oklahoma City, showing that this is a place that can be welcoming and that they, like any other resident or citizen here, have a perfect right to visit with their representatives, make their feelings known,” he said. “Hopefully, their representatives will want to see them, because they are their constituents.”