According to its web site, “The Oak Initiative is a grassroots movement to Unite, Mobilize, Equip, and Activate Christians to be the salt and light they are called to be by engaging in the great issues of our time from a sound biblical worldview.” The Initiative operates an online radio show, as well as a Youtube channel, and has authored reports asserting such claims as the “Muslim Brotherhood Declares War on United States.”

The Oak Initiative also operates Oak Leaves Publishing, which disseminates neoconservative literature, as well as an online store that sells books by Islamophobes such as Brigette Gabriel (of ACT! For America) and David Gaubatz. The Oak Initiative is part of the outer core of the U.S. Islamophobia network.

In 2011, Oak Leaves Publishing released Islam Vs The United States, a book (by board member Nicholas Papanicolaou) which claims to expose “the strategic plan for the Muslim Brotherhood in the USA” and the “all-conquering character of many of the followers of Islam.” The book has been endorsed by self styled “former terrorist” Kamal Saleem of Former Muslims United.

Key Individuals

Rick Joyner (President)

Joyner is the president of the Oak Initiative. He is also the founder/director of Morningstar Ministries and the founder/director of Heritage National Ministries. He has authored more than forty books.

His book The Harvest lays out some of his views on Islam: “Islamic terrorists will permeate the West with teams that target Christian organizations and leaders. This is in preparation for an Islamic assault upon the entire world. They will compile computer data on every Christian leader who has any kind of extra-local influence (i.e. newsletters, television or radio outreach). Their main target for attacks will be upon denominations and institutions with political influence. They will seldom interfere with the actual harvest of the true church. Ultimately Islam will become the greatest threat to peace, world order and freedom.”

Joyner advances the conspiracy theory that President Obama is a Muslim, saying “No doubt President Obama is acting more like a Muslim, and doing far more to promote Islam, while at the same time demonstrating disdain or hostility toward Christians and Christianity. The fruit of his actions bears strong evidence that Obama is indeed a Muslim, or at the very least has far more affinity for Islam than Christianity.”

Joyner attempts to paint the Muslim community in Michigan as a threat, saying the following:

“One of the things Detroit has become known for in our nation is the largest Muslim community in our nation, and Dearborn, it’s growing. Many have said there actually is an attempt to make Michigan our first Muslim state…. You cannot understand our modern world today without understanding Islam, and the Lord called them hypocrites who did not know the Signs of the Times. We need to know and understand this issue, we have to. And Islam is in our face, everywhere we return. And here, in America, this is the one place where it is most in our face, right now.”

Joyner believes that the Quran “enslaves”’ Muslims which is why “we have more slaves in the world today than before the Civil War here in America.”

Fmr. Lieutenant General William G. Boykin (Board Member)

Boykin was the United States Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He is currently the executive vice president of the Family Research Council.

Boykin asserts that “[Islam] should not be protected under the First Amendment,” that there should be “no mosques in America,” that Islam is a “totalitarian way of life,” and that there can be no interfaith dialogue or cooperation between Muslims and Christians.

In 2003, President Bush rebuked Boykin for his anti-Muslim stance. Writing in the New York Times on October 20, 2003, Brian Knowlton reported, “Boykin had said, among other things, that Muslims worship an ‘idol,’ not a ‘real God,’ and that America’s enemy in the fight with Islamic extremism was ‘a guy called Satan.’”

Mayor Richard Meehan of Ocean City, Md., ignored requests to reconsider inviting Boykin to speak at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on January 26, 2012. After advocacy and veteran groups raised similar concerns about a scheduled Boykin speech at West Point, the general withdrew from the event.

In June 2012, Boykin claimed Dearborn, Michigan is “almost one hundred percent Muslim and operating under sharia law now.”

In 2013, Boykin warned, “If you are tied to the mainstream media you will never know anything about the true nature of Islam.”