Cowboy town: Anti-Muslim bigotry top Easter story

Cowboy town: Anti-Muslim bigotry top Easter story
In Stillwater, Okla., front-page coverage in paper puzzles, outrages local residents

Easter – the most joyous and important holiday in the Christian calendar.

But there was no mention of it on the front page of an Oklahoma newspaper in a town served by more than 70 churches.

Instead, page 1 of the Stillwater NewsPress was dominated yesterday by a story about efforts to battle anti-Islam bigotry by the Muslim Student Association of Oklahoma State University.

"You wouldn't have known it was Easter at all according to the paper if it wasn't for the full page Hobby Lobby ad situated toward the back of the paper," one unhappy reader told WND.

To him and others who saw the paper on Easter morning, there was surprise to see page 1 dominated by a large photo of Muslims praying – a picture that illustrated a story about "Muslim 101," a monthly educational series begun on campus because of negative stereotyping about Islam following Sept. 11.

The classes began last November, but the Stillwater NewsPress featured the story on the holiest of Christian holidays yesterday.

"Unfortunately, because of the hateful acts of a few so-called Muslims and the unheard voices of the majority of the Muslim population, Islam has been horribly misunderstood," explained Modar Abuljebain in the NewsPress story. "We, as a Muslim community in Stillwater, felt the need to start Islam 101 since we found ourselves being constantly misrepresented in the media and we wanted to give the people of Stillwater a chance to meet us and get to know the Muslims in their community."

In fact, there are no mosques in Stillwater and the Muslim community in the town of about 40,000 is almost completely confined to the university.

Oklahoma State University is the largest employer in town and the biggest landowner. The university's sports teams are known as the Cowboys.

In addition to the university, which dominates the town culturally and economically, Stillwater is home to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum.