Oklahoma and Islam, Pt 2

The last time Oklahoma made the news was when the people of that state passed an anti-sharia law back in Noverber, 2010.  State question 755, passed by more than 60%  of the voters, is on hold, an injunction placed against it by Judge Vicki Miles-Lagrange.  Now, the state has given us another reason to ask questions, this time in the form of a possible anti-Muslim hate crime.  Details are few, but this article from Jihad Watch and Roland Shirk sheds some light on what has happened so far.


From Jihad Watch Jan 5 by Roland Shirk

The details so far have not been made public by the government, so it's impossible to tell whether Oklahoman Jesse Quinn Harrison really did transmit threats against Tulsa's Islamic Peace Academy--or whether he is being held unjustly for exercising his First Amendment rights. The facts of the case that have emerged are these, according to the Tulsa World:

Jesse Quinn Harrison, 33, was charged Tuesday with one count each of transmitting a threatening letter and malicious intimidation or harassment - what Oklahoma statutes call a hate crime. According to the charges, Harrison is accused of sending a nine-page letter to the Islamic Peace Academy in Tulsa "with the intent to intimidate."

He also made a video that shows him "smearing pork on the Quran and an Islamic religious figure and grilling those items," according to the charge.
The charge states that the video was made to "produce violence directed to others because of their religious beliefs."

The video, which doesn't show its creator's face, intersperses images of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States with the grilling of a Quran, a picture of an Islamic figure and two pork chops. Once the items are grilled, they are stacked on a bun and given to a dog.

The Merle Haggard songs "The Fightin' Side of Me" and "Okie from Muskogee" play in the background.

At the end of the video, a memorial to Michele Heidenberger, a flight attendant who died when terrorists crashed her plane into the Pentagon, is shown on the screen.

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