TERROR IN OKLAHOMA CITY : U.S. Muslims Fear Possibility of Backlash

Amid angry calls by President Clinton for the “swift, certain and severe” punishment of the perpetrators of the Oklahoma City bombing--and speculation as to who might be responsible--Muslim leaders braced themselves Wednesday for a flare-up of anti-Islamic sentiment.

Only hours after the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles reported receiving a telephoned threat vowing retribution, even as the council joined other Islamic groups in denouncing terrorism.

The FBI said that it had no immediate information pointing to any group or reason for the bombing that killed at least 31 people, including 12 children, in Oklahoma City.

At the same time, an authority on religions and cults questioned speculation that members of the Branch Davidians may have been involved in the attack. The deadly Oklahoma explosion occurred on the second anniversary of the fiery ending to the standoff between federal officers and the Branch Davidians at their compound near Waco, Tex. An estimated 80 Branch Davidians were killed in the 1993 raid, including their messianic leader David Koresh.

“I don’t think they had anything to do with it,” said J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara. Melton noted that at the same hour the explosion took place in Oklahoma, the Davidians who survived the raid were attending a remembrance ceremony in Waco with their attorney, former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark.

Since the federal raid, the Davidians have been attempting to raise money to launch a civil lawsuit against the government and fund the legal appeals for members who are in jail.

“This (bombing) would certainly be counterproductive to all of that if they were involved,” Melton said. “If they had anything to do with this . . . it would be the end of everything they have worked for in the last couple of years.”

In Los Angeles, Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said he feared a return of the anti-Islamic sentiment that followed the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York if the suspects in the Oklahoma bombing turn out to be Muslims or of Middle Eastern descent.

“It becomes a double trauma. The first trauma is in witnessing with everyone else the suffering inflicted on innocent children and people who have nothing to do with any reason behind this bombing,” Al-Marayati said. “Then we (Muslims) suffer when the suspicions lead authorities (to) people of Middle Eastern or Muslim backgrounds.”

Like other Islamic leaders, Al-Marayati denounced the bombing and urged Muslims to go to Oklahoma and aid in disaster relief efforts.

“We condemn this act,” he said. “There’s no room whatsoever in Islam for anything like this to be tolerated. It is abhorred by all of us. We are calling on the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice without any leniency and charge them to the fullest extent of the law.”