‘We will cut all of your heads off’: Texas mosque threatened by 'US Army veteran'
Man calls for another Christian crusade against Muslims in his country
SCREEN GRAB from Washington Post video
Receiving threats is, unfortunately, not new for Masjid al-Sahaabah mosque in Texas. However, a recent message was far more alarming that any they had ever received before.
The man, who claimed to be local Army veteran, and a Christian by faith, referred to Islam as a ‘violent religion’, accusing Muslims for trying to implement shariah in the United States.
According to him, he is ‘armed to teeth’ and calls for another Christian crusade against the Muslims in his country.
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“We will cut all of your heads off,” the man on the call. “Do you understand me? All of you.”
The messages are usually deleted but this was not as the mosque management grew frightened and immediately told law enforcement agencies about it.
“Our community is fed up with this,” the security in charge of the mosque said. “During Ramazan, we had someone shining a laser sight from his rifle at the mosque as well.”
A spokesperson of FBI, Dallas said they were investigating the matter but avoided commenting on it any further.
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He believed the caller was merely posing as an army veteran and he would be apprehended as the agency was working on the IP address of the message sent using Google Voice.
Watauga police chief Glen Fowler termed the happening as a “significant incident”, saying he had directed his staff to handle the case as a “priority investigation”.
Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said it seemed the caller had recently “become radicalised”.
“In our assessment, this was an actionable threat,” Salem said. “He’s identified himself as being local to the area and given specific instructions about what he would do.”
Salem believed such incidents were not shocking, given the recent phenomenon of anti-Muslim rhetoric by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“People think if their lawmaker thinks or says something hateful, then that means it’s okay,” Salem said. “There have been no consequences for someone like Donald Trump, and he grows in popularity, which sends a clear message to people who espouse this type of bigotry.”
The article originally appeared in The Washington Post
The man, who claimed to be local Army veteran, and a Christian by faith, referred to Islam as a ‘violent religion’, accusing Muslims for trying to implement shariah in the United States.
According to him, he is ‘armed to teeth’ and calls for another Christian crusade against the Muslims in his country.
Largest US Muslim center targets spike in Islamophobia
“We will cut all of your heads off,” the man on the call. “Do you understand me? All of you.”
The messages are usually deleted but this was not as the mosque management grew frightened and immediately told law enforcement agencies about it.
“Our community is fed up with this,” the security in charge of the mosque said. “During Ramazan, we had someone shining a laser sight from his rifle at the mosque as well.”
A spokesperson of FBI, Dallas said they were investigating the matter but avoided commenting on it any further.
Muslim woman counters Islamophobia with peace signs and selfies
He believed the caller was merely posing as an army veteran and he would be apprehended as the agency was working on the IP address of the message sent using Google Voice.
Watauga police chief Glen Fowler termed the happening as a “significant incident”, saying he had directed his staff to handle the case as a “priority investigation”.
Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said it seemed the caller had recently “become radicalised”.
“In our assessment, this was an actionable threat,” Salem said. “He’s identified himself as being local to the area and given specific instructions about what he would do.”
Salem believed such incidents were not shocking, given the recent phenomenon of anti-Muslim rhetoric by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“People think if their lawmaker thinks or says something hateful, then that means it’s okay,” Salem said. “There have been no consequences for someone like Donald Trump, and he grows in popularity, which sends a clear message to people who espouse this type of bigotry.”
The article originally appeared in The Washington Post