Thousands back Tulsa officer ordered to Muslim worship

An update on these previous posts, via Thousands back Tulsa officer ordered to Muslim worship.

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Tens of thousands of Americans are lining up in support of a police officer in Tulsa, Okla., who was punished for refusing his department’s order to attend an “Islamic proselytizing event” even as a legal team representing the captain is petitioning the court to add new allegations of misbehavior by his superiors to a lawsuit over the dispute.

WND reported earlier when a legal action was brought by attorneys with the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of Paul Fields.

Chief Charles Jordan

Named as defendants are the city, police chief Charles W. Jordan and deputy chief Alvin Daryl Webster.

The lawsuit focuses on the officer’s constitutional and civil rights, and along with a resolution of Fields’ concerns, it seeks an injunction preventing “enforcement of defendants’ unconstitutional acts, policies, practices, procedures and/or customs.”

At issue were orders by the department that Fields participate in an event at a local Islamic center that has been described as a proselytizing campaign. The Tulsa Police Department had told officers to attend a “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” organized by the Islamic Society of Tulsa. The invitation said the officers would be given tours of the mosque, meet the mosque’s leadership, be given presentations of “beliefs, human rights, women” and “watch the 2-2:45 weekly congregational prayer service.”

Meanwhile, a legal team working on Fields’ behalf, the attorneys of the Thomas More Law Center, told WND they are seeking court permission to amend their original complaint over the city’s actions to include the specific damages that have accumulated.

The damages include two weeks of being suspended from pay for his refusal to attend the Islamic event and the threat that he will not be considered for promotion for a time, according to Law Center president Richard Thompson.

“We asked the court to amend our complaint to add the actual discipline,” Thompson said. “Because of the new facts raised as our reason for amending the complaint that should be granted.”

He said an additional First Amendment claim also is being added, because city officials told Fields that part of the discipline was for allowing the public to know about the dispute.

“If this had been a Muslim officer told to go to a Christian prayer service and the Muslim officer refused because it would violate his Islamic faith, there would have been no reaction at all,” Thompson told WND.

“But this happened because this was a Christian officer who said the orders would violate his Christian principles.”

Thompson said it is startling how easily a Muslim Brotherhood-related idea can co-opt American rights.

The lawsuit explains that, at first, the police administration’s recommendation for attendance at the Islamic event appeared to be voluntary – there was a voluntary signup list. But the law firm said when officers refused to respond, the managers made it a required event.

Invitation to prayers

The day “had nothing to do with any official police function. It clearly fell outside of the police department’s policy on community policing, and based on comments made by police department officials in a closed door meeting, it was not ‘community outreach’ as it has been previously portrayed,” the law firm explained.

“Rather, it included a mosque tour, meetings with local Muslims and Muslim leadership, observing a ‘weekly prayer service,’ and lectures on Islamic ‘beliefs,’” the Thomas More Law Center explained. “The event was scheduled for Friday, March 4, 2011 – Friday being the ‘holy day’ or ‘Sabbath’ for Islam. In fact, the event was originally voluntary, but when not enough officers were willing to attend, it became mandatory.”

The lawsuit alleges, “The event held by the Islamic Society involved Islamic proselytizing. The Islamic Society event was advertised as including Islamic proselytizing, and it in fact resulted in the proselytizing of city police officers who attended the event.”

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The suit notes that under Islam, there are members of the House of Islam and “infidels,” whom it teaches eventually all will submit to Islam.

Thus, the “Appreciation Day” was no more than an opportunity “to promote what Shariah-adherents such as the Muslim Brotherhood have described as ‘civilization jihad,’” the lawsuit said.

The complaint also notes the Tulsa organization is affiliated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America – both “unindicted, co-conspirators and/or joint venturers in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial.”

ISNA, the case explains, is the “largest Muslim brotherhood front in North America.”

The Tulsa organization has had featured speakers such as Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who is “a Shariah-adherent Muslim who promotes the destruction of Western civilization and the creation of an Islamic caliphate,” according to the lawsuit.

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