militiamen and hundreds of refugees were killed.

Enchassi said surviving the massacre made him think long and hard about the power and destructiveness of hatred.

“I knew that hatred had to stop. What hatred is so deep that would make someone cut a baby from the womb?” he said.

Enchassi said he immigrated to the United States soon after the massacre and attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth. He said he worked his way through college (he obtained a graduate degree in human resources management) with a cafeteria chain that eventually sent him to Oklahoma City to operate one of its restaurants.

Enchassi said he joined with a relatively small contingent of Muslims to form the Islamic Society. He said a shortage of imamsprompted the society’s board to ask him to fill in as the organization’s spiritual leader. He said he he’s the position of imam and society president since 2003.

Enchassi said the society started in an apartment on NW 50 and Portland Avenue and met there for four years before opening the organization’s current mosque in December 1997. He said the Muslim community that attends services at the mosque, 3214 N St. Clair has grown from about 27 people to more than 1,000.

Enchassi said he went back to school in Lebanon several years ago to earn a bachelor’s degree an doctorate degree in Islamic studies. He said he felt it was important to obtain more knowledge about the roots of his faith because he is now serving as spiritual guide