- Archives

Federal authorities are investigating whether attacks last week on two mosques in Massachusetts and Arizona were anti-Muslim hate crimes. Earlier this week, the Al-Baqi Islamic Center in Springfield, Mass., burned to the ground. Arson investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire, but said the blaze was not sparked by electrical problems. Across the continent, an investigation has begun over a fire that destroyed a Phoenix-area mosque. The blaze broke out early Tuesday morning in the Al Sadiq Mosque in Glendale, Arizona. The burning of the mosques has sent shock waves throughout the Muslim-American community. "We are very alarmed at the rate of these incidents, but I'm confident that the authorities will find the answers to the question regarding these crimes," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. In response to these attacks, CAIR's legal director, Arsalan Iftikhar, wrote to the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division saying: "Given the recent pattern of incidents targeting Islamic institutions in the United States, and the Muslim community's concerns about the rising tide of Islamophobic rhetoric in our society, I would respectfully request that the Department of Justice assist in ruling out the possibility that these most recent incidents were bias-motivated hate crimes." In late November, CAIR called on the FBI to assist in the investigation of a fire at a Virginia gas station that may have been motivated by anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias. Racist graffiti such as "F*** Arab go home" was left in the vicinity of the Sikh-owned station. (Since the 9/11 terror attacks, a number of Sikh men who wear turbans have been targeted because they were mistaken for Muslims.) [more]