Catholic Priest Assists Detained Muslim Students in Oklahoma

April 21, 2002

Source: The Chicago Tribune

On April 21, 2002, The Chicago Tribune reported that in Norman, Oklahoma, many Muslim students and residents have been questioned, detained, and arrested on various charges. "As federal investigators searched for terrorist cells across America last fall, they conducted an intense sweep in this college town... Joseph Meinhart, a Roman Catholic priest, read about the arrests... in the local newspapers. After learning that friends of the students were afraid to visit them in jail, fearing they, too, would be arrested, Meinhart used his position to get inside... 'No one had told them anything,' Meinhart recalled. 'They didn't know why they were there, they didn't know when they would go to court, they didn't know they had a right to a lawyer--nothing.'"