A White House official visited the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City (ISGOC) on Saturday, and offered words of praise to the organization regarding its recent community involvement, reported KFOR. The move is likely to draw criticism due to the mosque's link to jihadist Alton Alexander Nolen who recently nurdered his coworker, Colleen Hufford, and beheaded her in what the Obama administration continues to label an act of work place rather than an act of terrorism.
State Department official David Myers, the director of the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, flew to the Oklahoma mosque to hand-deliver a thank you note to the congregation regarding their "hard work in helping rebuild the Moore community after a destructive tornado tore through the city in 2013."
At a holiday celebration held by ISGOC, Myers read President Barack Obama's note aloud: "Your service is a powerful example of the powerful roots of the Abrahamic faiths and how our communities can come together with shared peace with dignity and a sense of justice."
Muslims in Oklahoma have recently been targeted with vicious messages that demanded them to leave the state and threatened to behead them due to the perceived association with Alton Alexander Nolen, the man responsible for the horrific act of workplace beheading at Vaughan Foods.
ISGOC's Imam said during his sermon that the Muslim faith has been referred to as a "cancer that needs to be cut off from the American society."
But the visit from the White House helped to reassure them that somebody out there appreciates what they do and considers them a part of American society.
The special trip was likely meant to counteract the negative attention directed towards the mosque as a result of Nolen's murder of his coworker, Colleen Hufford.
A former Imam of the mosque, Suhaib Webb, was, at one point, close friends with the al-Qaeda terrorist and U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, according to Breitbart News. Other radical Islamists had also reportedly attended the same mosque.
In a press release published by the mosque regarding recent accusatory media statements, the mosque claimed, "Suhaib Webb was the Imam of ISGOC from 1998 until 2001. During his time and in his subsequent work elsewhere, he preached Islam's message of peace, compassion, mercy, love, and understanding. While serving as the Imam for ISGOC, Webb raised approximately $25,000 from his congregation for one of the firefighters that lost their life on 9/11. He also took groups of volunteers to serve the victims of the 1999 tornadoes in Oklahoma. He continues to this day to be a force against violent extremism, as does the ISGOC."
