Tulsa Panel Asks 'Should We Fear Islam?'

Organizers called Sunday’s discussion at Tulsa Community College an academic presentation.

The title: Should we fear Islam?

Speakers from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities spoke about  the emergence of extremism among some Muslims and fear of the Islamic faith.

For Imam John Ederer it's an easy answer – No.

But the hundreds of people who filled the room wanted to know more.

"I wanted to come here today to learn more about just the actual theology of Islam and not just getting a bunch of memes from social media,” Cody Brown said. “I actually wanted to learn what Islam really is and the scriptural backing for what is the being called the silent majority of Muslims."

That's the whole idea behind the "Should We Fear Islam" panel discussion.

For months organizers have been putting the event together and hoping to be proactive in clarifying ideas and generalizations surrounding Islam.

“I don't believe the term ‘Christian terrorist’ is any more acceptable as ‘Islamic terrorist’ or ‘Jewish terrorist’ because the religions don't teach that,” Ederer said. “So you can't define terrorist by the religion."

He said people shouldn't allow the actions of some radicals to define an entire faith.

"None of us, I hope, in the room would define Christianity by the behavior or Timothy McVeigh or members of the Westboro Baptist Church or the KKK," Rev. Charles Kimball said.

Ederer said for people practicing Islam as it was intended, there's a set of core values referred to as Sharia Law.

He said it calls for the preservation of religion, life, family, mind and wealth. Terrorism and destruction is nowhere in that, he said.

"Anything I do learn here factual information I can take back to enrich the conversation, I'll take that back to my friends,” Brown said.

The panel discussion was filmed and is expected to be released on the movie streaming site Netflix. There is no timeline on when it will be released.