The Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995, caused undeniable destruction. According to the FBI report released to the public, the bombing was “the worst act of homegrown terrorism in the nation’s history.”

Michigan resident and U.S. citizen, Timothy McVeigh, was found and arrested on April 21, 1995. The FBI forensics team found the bomber’s Ryder truck’s back axle on April 20, and the vehicle identification number was discovered and linked to an auto body shop in Junction City, Kansas. On April 21, a brief phone call to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division in West Virginia revealed that McVeigh was already incarcerated. An astute Oklahoma State Trooper had pulled him over approximately 80 miles north of Oklahoma City after seeing that his yellow Mercury Marquis’ license plate was missing. McVeigh was apprehended while carrying a hidden weapon. Ninety minutes had passed since the bombing.

McVeigh’s clothes held traces of chemicals that matched the sample of chemicals collected at the scene of the bombing. As evidence was being collected to clearly implicate McVeigh, and later his accomplice Terry Nichols, in the bombing, he hadn’t been the only suspect.

The New York Times published an article on April 24, 1995, just three days after McVeigh had been arrested, reporting that the FBI had detained a Muslim American suspect without evidence. Reporting for The New York Times, Youssef M. Ibrahim observed that many American media outlets had assumed that the bombing was an act of Islamic terrorism without proof. While anti-Western terrorist groups had indeed applauded the bombing and the destruction that had been brought upon the U.S., the actual perpetrators, McVeigh and Nichols, were white American citizens who were members of the right-wing paramilitary group, the Michigan Militia.

According to the New York Times article, Ibrahim Abdallah, an American citizen of Middle Eastern origin was detained in London after a flight he had been on from Chicago. Abdallah had been a resident of Oklahoma, and was on his way to visit his Palestinian family in Jordan. According to The New York Times, he was taken by American authorities and was brought to Washington where he’d been questioned.

Zahera Nassar, a Dearborn resident and school teacher and sister to Ibrahim Abdallah, spoke to The Mirror News about what happened with her brother in 1995. According to Nassar, “When he got to London, the British authorities did not allow him to board the plane to Jordan.” The British authorities detained him in London under the order of the FBI and waited for U.S. officials to arrive and take Abdallah back to America. The wait lasted for hours, and when the FBI arrived, they cuffed him and took Abdallah back to Washington for further interrogation.

In the interview, Nassar had mentioned that there’d been one FBI agent who’d been exceptionally kind to Abdallah. Nassar said, “He took him out of the cuffs during the flight and they were talking. The agent asked my brother on the plane, ‘You’re not scared?’ After seeing how calm Ibrahim was, my brother replied saying ‘No, I didn’t do anything, whatever happens is from Allah.’ When the agent saw he was calm and probably innocent, he removed the handcuffs from him.”

When Abdallah arrived in America, he’d requested to have his face covered in case the press was present. He hadn’t wanted his mother to see the ordeal on television, and the FBI agent did what Abdallah requested.

Abdallah sent his wife and children to stay with a friend since he and his family were being attacked by people in their neighborhood who believed Muslims had been behind the bombing. They would throw rocks at his house and his windows.

Abdallah lost his civil suit when he tried to sue in federal court for false accusations of a federal crime.

Abdallah and his family had lived in fear that he’d be killed if the government decided he was guilty. Even after the real culprits of the bombing were arrested, Abdallah’s loved ones could not let go of the fear that Abdallah was being watched by the FBI.

Nassar said, “My family was so scared that [Ibrahim Abdallah] would be incarcerated as a terrorist.” Nassar added, “It was thanks to Allah that the real culprits were found and Abdallah was found innocent.”

Abdallah now lives with his family in Colorado. No official information has been released publicly regarding the mistreatment Abdallah received from British and American authorities and the residents of Oklahoma.