Mosque where Orlando gunman worshipped is set on fire

[webfact]

Mosque where Orlando gunman worshipped is set on fire

By TERRY SPENCER

 

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — 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.

 

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.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-09-13

[seedy]

Troll posts Removed. Blanket statements against any group are invariably wrong. And Germany after WW2 is way off topic.

[phantomfiddler]

I do believe it is a common occurrence in muslim countries to set fire to Christian churches, often with the worshippers trapped inside !!  How can the muslims possibly complain ?

[John1012]

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.

 

 

Well that is surprising, you are offended when your community is terrorised by someone who is possibly non Islamic, but when our non Islamic community is terrorised by the followers of Islam, and we complain and say that someone Islamic is "is terrorizing our community because we don't know where he is at and we don't know what he is capable of doing,", we are called racists and islamaphobes.

 

You reap what you sow. Rid your so called 'religion' of the extremists, integrate, dump Sharia and all  problems will disappear.

 

Enoch Powell was right, there is blood on the streets, there will be more, much more. The native populace of USA and Europe is slowly opening it's eyes to the invasion of Islam, and will eventually react in the only way  the weak arse licking politically correct politicians have left it.

[shirtless]

It is wrong to burn mosques , but under the circumstances i can overlook this one. 

[Khon Kaen Dave]

No sympathy there i'm afraid.Good on yer boy(s)

[DM07]

Aaaaaaa...good to see, the freedom loving upright supporters of the 1st...oh, sorry ...2nd amendment are at it again!

Dare I ask for some links to "churches in the Middle East" that get burned to the ground, with people inside?

May I ask, why it is okay to burn down this mosque, when it was ONE PERSON, doing something wrong?

May I ask, why it is always ALL Muslims, being responsible for the deeds of SOME Muslims, but never the fault of ALL Christians, when one Christian nutjob burns down an abortion- clinic or kills a doctor?

 

Despicable!

[Khon Kaen Dave]

I suppose that trying to explain your rationale to the fathers and mothers and sisters  and brothers of the innocent night clubbers that were slaughtered that night,would be met with reason and understanding.

I'm afraid that revenge sometimes knows no reason.And how do we know for sure that this isnt the place where he was radicalised.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

10 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

I do believe it is a common occurrence in muslim countries to set fire to Christian churches, often with the worshippers trapped inside !!  How can the muslims possibly complain ?

Squeaky wheel gets the grease

[tifino]

 

Why open the gate now?

 

Too late, the horse had already bolted

[Jingthing]

10 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

I do believe it is a common occurrence in muslim countries to set fire to Christian churches, often with the worshippers trapped inside !!  How can the muslims possibly complain ?

Easy. Two wrongs don't make a right. 

[Jingthing]

There is no excuse for this arson.

However, didn't this mosque host Jihadist extremist speakers before?

If so, there is no excuse for that either.

Both are .... DEPLORABLE. 

Edited September 13, 2016 by Jingthing

[soc]

On 13/09/2016 at 6:00 PM, DM07 said:

Aaaaaaa...good to see, the freedom loving upright supporters of the 1st...oh, sorry ...2nd amendment are at it again!

Dare I ask for some links to "churches in the Middle East" that get burned to the ground, with people inside?

May I ask, why it is okay to burn down this mosque, when it was ONE PERSON, doing something wrong?

May I ask, why it is always ALL Muslims, being responsible for the deeds of SOME Muslims, but never the fault of ALL Christians, when one Christian nutjob burns down an abortion- clinic or kills a doctor?

 

Despicable!

Here you go,

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/extremists.burn.down.church.in.egypt/85988.htm

Plenty more if you just google "christian churches burned"

Educate yourself.

[jcsmith]

On 9/13/2016 at 9:32 AM, phantomfiddler said:

I do believe it is a common occurrence in muslim countries to set fire to Christian churches, often with the worshippers trapped inside !!  How can the muslims possibly complain ?

What kind of twisted insane argument is that? You can justify just about anything with that kind of logic.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, soc said:

Here you go,

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/extremists.burn.down.church.in.egypt/85988.htm

Plenty more if you just google "christian churches burned"

Educate yourself.

'How many churches burned with people inside' was the question, made after a claim that to be a common occurrence.

Edited September 15, 2016 by stevenl

[garyk]

Personally I see organized religion as a whole a huge problem. Causing countless deaths each year. 

[DM07]

2 hours ago, soc said:

Here you go,

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/extremists.burn.down.church.in.egypt/85988.htm

Plenty more if you just google "christian churches burned"

Educate yourself.

"Dare I ask for some links to "churches in the Middle East" that get burned to the ground, with people inside?"

Educate YOURSELF! 

Start with learning to read!

[Scott]

Please stop with the inflammatory remarks and stay on topic.  

[JHolmesJr]

It is literally an inflammatory story, to be sure.

 

Gives me no pleasure to recount this but I did feel this is going to be an ongoing trend.