Wednesday 16 Dec 2015 - 12:40 Makkah mean time-5-3-1437
Abdul Hamid Samra, the imam at the Islamic Center of Greater Miami in Miami Gardens, leads a prayer inside the mosque on Tuesday. Image from Miami Herald news.
South Florida, (IINA) - An Islamic school in Cooper City and a mosque in Miami Gardens were targets of virulent, anti-Muslim messages over the weekend, with hateful words spray-painted across a wall and an email vowed ‘to kill’’ all Muslims, Miami Herald online news reported.
Rubina Tariq, principal at Nur-Ul-Islam academy in Cooper City, called the Broward Sheriff's office on Monday after finding a profane message painted on a wall at the school with 400 students.
“A small group of radicals cannot destroy any community or any religion,” she said, adding that the school, which sits off Stirling Road, has strong relationships with the nearby church, synagogue and law enforcement and local government. “I am so grateful to the sheriff’s department and mayor.”
By 12:30 p.m., the words were cleaned up, and the 400-plus students at the preK-12 school went home after taking final exams.
On Saturday, an email was sent to the Islamic Center of Greater Miami in Miami Gardens. The Miami Herald reports it was filled with short, threatening sentences. The sender called Islam a "cancer" and "disease" and pledged to "kill every Muslim around the world."
Abdul Hamid Samra, the imam at the mosque, called the email “nasty” and said it’s “sad to think people think that way.”
“We’re against killing innocent people, and the incidents in Paris or California can’t be justified in any way and should not be directed to the faith,” he said. “These people are criminals.”
Recently, incidents against Muslims have been making headlines across the country. In Southern California a mosque was set on fire, in West Palm Beach, windows were smashed at a mosque and in Tampa two Muslim women were attacked.
Anti-Muslim sentiment has been on the rise since last month's ISIS-led terrorist attacks in Paris, followed by the mass shooting earlier this month in San Bernardino, California, by a Muslim husband and wife.
Thania Clevenger, civil rights director for the Council of Islamic-America Relations (CAIR), Florida chapter, says her office has received 20 general discrimination cases against Muslims since the Paris attacks. Four of these cases were reported on Monday the 2 in South Florida, plus a Qur’an burning in Tampa and a woman who had her headscarf pulled off also in Tampa.
On Monday afternoon, Shabbir Motorwala of the Coalition of South Florida Muslim organizations said Miami U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer called to tell him his office takes such incidents seriously.
“I’m glad our law enforcement is on top of these things,’’ Motorwala said. “We cannot let fear mongers run our lives, that’s what ISIS is trying to do.”
SM/IINA
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
No comments:
Post a Comment