Mosque where Orlando gunman worshipped is set on fire
ST. LUCIE SHERIFF’S OFFICE VIA AP
In this photo provided by the St. Lucie Sheriff’s Office, firefighters work at the scene of a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce today in Fort Pierce, Fla.
FORT PIERCE, Fla. » The mosque that Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen attended was heavily damaged in an arson fire that Muslim leaders said was the latest incident in an escalating campaign of harassment and violence against the house of worship and its members.
Given the timing — Sunday’s 15th anniversary of 9/11 and the start of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha — investigators believe the blaze that broke out shortly before midnight Sunday at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce may have been a hate crime, St. Lucie County sheriff’s spokesman Maj. David Thompson said.
No one was injured. The fire burned a 10-by-10-foot (3-by-3-meter) hole in the roof at the back of the mosque’s main building and blackened its eaves with soot.
A surveillance video from the mosque showed a man on a motorcycle approaching the building with a bottle of liquid and some papers, then leaving when there was a flash and shaking his hand as though he may have burned it, Thompson said.
The arsonist “is terrorizing our community because we don’t know where he is at and we don’t know what he is capable of doing,” said Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a Florida spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Mateen was killed by police after opening fire at the Pulse nightclub June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded. He professed allegiance to the Islamic State group. His father is among roughly 100 people who attend the mosque.
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Ruiz said the mosque and its worshippers have been harassed since the massacre.
“First there were threating voicemails,” he said. “Then drivers would splash water on the parishioners leaving on Fridays, and then a member got beat up in the parking lot when he came to the mosque for early morning prayers, and now the mosque has been set on fire.”
The mosque has received more threats since the nightclub shooting than it did in its previous 20 years of existence, assistant imam Hamaad Rahman said.
“For this to happen to us on the morning of our biggest celebration of the year has made everyone saddened and scared, but our community is bigger than a building. We are stronger than that,” he said. “I feel we will be able to pull together from this, and as time goes by we will be able to rebuild.”
The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation into the fire. Sheriff’s officials released the video and asked for the public’s help in identifying the arsonist.
Ariana Borras stopped by the mosque with her 2-year-old son to pay respects Monday morning. Borras said she is Hispanic and not a Muslim but is sometimes asked if she is Muslim because of the color of her skin.
The fire “makes me scared for my son. It makes me scared for my skin color,” she said. “There have been a lot of racial issues going on and there’s so much hate in the world right now.”
Michael Parsons, 22, was standing outside his parents’ home, directly across the street from the mosque. He said that since the Orlando shooting, “a lot of people have been driving by hollering and yelling expletives at the church or mosque or whatever they call it.”
Parsons, a gutter installer with “trust no one” tattooed on his chest, said his mother’s cancer doctor attends the mosque.
“America was founded so people can believe what they want to believe and do what they want to do,” he said. “These guys flying the American flag on their trucks don’t really know what the freedom is they’re fighting for.”
On July 2, a man was beaten outside the mosque. CAIR said the victim was a Muslim and the attacker hurled slurs. A suspect was arrested. CAIR said that earlier that day, a man in a truck stopped outside the mosque and said, “You Muslims need to get back to your country.”
On Monday morning, a pickup truck with a “Don’t Tread on Me” bumper sticker rolled past the mosque. The driver revved his engine and raised his index finger in the air as if making the gesture for No. 1.
23 responses to “Mosque where Orlando gunman worshipped is set on fire”
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Sounds like they didn’t expect a backlash. Wonder if there is more to come. Many innocent people were killed and injured for no reason so it’s easy to understand why people will respond accordingly.
Really? Burning down houses of worship is now something that’s now easily understood?
Sorry CheeseBall. Didn’t mean to make it sound as if it’s “right”. Only meant to say that it easy to understand why people react this way. It would be a better world if they didn’t.
Look up “accordingly.”
What ever you meant to say it didn’t happen. It is not easy to understand why people would act “Sub human” to attack those who had nothing to do with the incident.
Easier to understand the absolute low class, dregs of the earth who would attack others needs to be removed from the earth.
Now it is on the Muslim community to prove they are not terrorists or bigots. Nor do they harbor them in their religion. Backlash against bigotry inspired by religion is not isolated to the Muslims. Just ask the Westboro Church.
Westboro? Those crazy guys driving all over the country protesting against—what is it they hate do much?—is it abortion?
Phelps and his whelps, the thing they hate so much is not being the center of attention.
Burning a mosque is the wrong way of getting rid of mosques. First we would need a law to outlaw Islam, then a court order to demolish all mosques – not just discriminate against a single one.
Allaha, you are so not Akbar.
>>>First we would need a law to outlaw Islam
Trump supporter? Or, just trying to be funny and failing badly.
Actually, yes, that’s exactly what you’d need. I’d wish you luck with it but I wouldn’t mean it. Keep dreaming that impossible dream.
Allaha – Sad to say the best part of you, well, wasn’t there when you were created.
You have no clue about anything, post shibai, spread urban legends.
I’ll bet you even believe rail is “On time, on budget.’
Disturbing. This is why we don’t want to use radical Islam in describing these terrorists.
Trump has been firing up his followers against Islam. It is such a mistake. Trump is also such a phony: he is playing his followers like he has Americans for many years. Sadly, he is all about himself.
Has nothing to do with Trump you donkey. There will be a time when many have had enough and take matters into their own hands. You think Americans will let Muslims what they did in Germany. Hell no!
Got their attention for sure. Weed out the bad apples in your “peaceful religion” and maybe just maybe Americans will believe in you that you ( Muslims) want to do the right thing.
Are you for real? Many of the people who worship at that Mosque are Americans. You know the same could said about all Churches. What Church did Timothy McVeigh go to? Did anything happen to that church? What church did James Earl Ray go to? Did anything happen to them? etc., etc. Does this sound foolish to you? Exactly.
Um new flash. Right now, in current events, those that are killing, blowing up, cutting heads off, burning alive in cages etc. etc. etc. profess to follow a certain religion. ISLAM! Enough said.
Venture to guess that most of the mass shooters in this country resemble you more than him. Best you hold onto your own apples.
This feels like the 1960s and 1970s all over again.
The best thing CAIR can do is to report the suspected extremists in their Mosques to the FBI. Only they are in a position to at know which of their members are likely to commit acts of terrorism against America. I find it hard to believe that none of them knew Omar was going to commit such an act.
They know who the extremists are in their group
CAIR reporting to the FBI? That will never happen. They have been known to instruct their flock to be uncooperative to authorities. CAIR is a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, posing as the Islamic ACLU. There is a site called MEMRI, middle east media research inst. that monitors and translates what the Imams are saying in their “prayers” as well as speeches into English, and contrasted to what they say in Arabic. Chilling!