Articles/Minutes

This section will contain featured articles and minutes from our monthly and quarterly meetings; and any special events that members or officers may participate in and want to provide feedback.

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April 10, 2007 Quarterly Conference & Annual Membership Meeting

The theme of this conference was "International Terrorism".

Mr. Reza Safa, our first guest speaker, presented an in-depth discussion of "Understanding the Mind of Radical Islam." Mr. Safa was born and raised a devout Shi'ite Muslim in Iran. He received Islamic education throughout his childhood and attended secret meetings of Iranian Ayatollahs (high-ranking Islamic clergy) with his father who was a Muslim scholar. Mr. Safa was furthering his education in the United States when he learned that the Ayatollah Khomeini had gained power in Iran. At that point, he returned to Iran to help establish the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has written several books including the best seller, Inside Islam. Mr. Reza transmits a daily broadcast from the United States directed at Iran in the native language of Farsi.

After lunch, Dr. Mark Gabriel discussed "Conflicts Between Islamic Law and the United States Constitution." Dr. Gabriel was born and raised in Egypt in a fundamentalist Islamic family and had memorized the entire Qur'an by the age of 12. He graduated second in a class of 6,000 at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, earning his BA, MA, and Ph. D. degrees in Islamic History and Culture, and then became a professor of Islamic History at that University. He also served as the imam (spiritual leader) of a mosque in Giza, site of the Great Pyramid. In 1991 he became disenchanted with Islam and was expelled from the university and the mosque. Dr. Gabriel has written several books on Islam.

During our Annual membership meeting, we elected 5 officer positions (President, Northeastern Sector Vice-President, Southwestern Sector Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer) and 4 new board member positions. The additional Vice-President position has been added to manage the Tulsa area and work with our members in that area to plan and conduct meetings.

The new slate of officers include: President/Dan Biby; Northeastern Sector VP/Dave Daniels; Southwestern Sector VP/Ken Ontko; Secretary/Aaron Bedingfield; and Treasurer/John Schlichting. The new Board members include: Jim Bella, City of Tulsa; Deborah Parrish-Boneta, State of Oklahoma Health Care Authority; George Lewellyn, EDS; Marian Millican, Francis Tuttle; and Joe Calvery, who was reelected to the Board. We want to welcome and congratulate everyone that was elected as we look forward to another outstanding year working together to help safeguard our nation.

Following the elections, Special Agent Matt Harper provided an overview of the local FBI office organization, describing the primary functions of each Squad in Oklahoma City and several accomplishments over the past year.

In addition to thanking all speakers, a special thank you goes out to Van Schallenberg, our past chapter president, who poured his heart, soul and a sizeable piece of his personal bank account out to ensure the success of this meeting. THANK YOU VAN!