Video Captures Man Throwing Molotov Cocktail At Mosque In Albuquerque
FBI agents and Albuquerque police are investigating after an unknown person threw a Molotov cocktail at a mosque in Albuquerque on Friday morning. The device hit the exterior wall of the Islamic Center of New Mexico around 3:55 a.m. Friday, scorching a wall and leaving broken glass on the ground, KOB reports. The device was thrown at an area of the building dedicated to women and children.
[su_center_ad]Several agencies, including the FBI and APD bomb squad, responded to the Islamic Center to conduct an investigation.
“I’m very disappointed something like this would happen here in Albuquerque,” Jameela Abdul Halim, the assistant administrator at the Islamic Center said.
Shakir Farid Abdullah, the center’s janitor, said he found the burnt bottle about five hours later, at around 9:00 a.m.
Abdullah explained that he fears the perpetrator assumes the mosque is affiliated with terrorist groups overseas.
“We believe in peace, nonviolence…we don’t support terrorism,” he said.. “We don’t support any acts of violence against any religious group…so someone, obviously, is ignorant to that.”
The Molotov cocktail was thrown on Friday, the day hundreds of Muslims come to the mosque to pray.
“[We’re] very grateful it didn’t go through the window. There was nobody around at the time; we didn’t have a lot of people,” Abdul Halim, a member of the Mosque said.
This isn’t the first incident at the center. Mosque member Andy Brooks said that people threw flaming Qurans into the mosque’s yard a couple years ago, and last year, someone walked into the Iman’s office and threatened him with a gun.
In February, a man approached two children on the mosque’s playground and allegedly threatened to stab them because he hated Muslims.
Members of the mosque say they’re going to invest more money on surveillance cameras.
This incident was captured on surveillance video, and shows a man getting out of his vehicle, approaching the center, then hurling the device.
Rep. Peter King said on Friday — before this incident — that we need an “all-out” increased surveillance of the Muslim communities. Perhaps he should surveil his own base.
The New Mexico Conference of Churches released a statement:
“The New Mexico Conference of Churches is terribly distressed by the news that a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the Islamic Center of New Mexico this morning. Christians across our state reject such hate-based violence. We recognize our Muslim brothers and sisters as fellow children of God and as our neighbors whom we are called to love. We urge all people to resist hatred with compassion in order to build a new era of peace and goodwill. Our prayers are with the members of the Islamic Center and we offer any and all help at this time.”
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) also issued a statement:
“The news that a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Islamic Center of New Mexico is deeply troubling. Acts of violence have no place in our society. The members of the Center and the entire Muslim community in New Mexico are in my thoughts.”
No arrests have been made at this time and the incident is not being investigated as a hate crime yet. If you have any information, contact the police.
Has anyone seen Michele Bachmann lately?
Watch courtesy of KOB:
H/T: @ComgenKDT with thanks.[su_csky_ad]
Tommy6860 October 26th, 2014 at 8:12 am
The asshole should be charged with terrorism when they catch him. Thanks GOP for spreading the fear and hate!.
Hirightnow October 26th, 2014 at 8:35 am
Even odds the perp constantly thanks the Baby Jesus for being born American, and for his luxurious double-wide.
Carla Akins October 26th, 2014 at 8:41 am
Suckers bet.
Not_Phyllis October 26th, 2014 at 9:12 am
Yoo hoo! Editors, it’s Rep. PETER King, not Rep. STEVE King. Sheesh…
jasperjava October 26th, 2014 at 9:51 am
That’s right. Making a Molotov cocktail would be WAY too difficult for Steve King.
neworleans878 October 26th, 2014 at 9:40 am
“Has anyone seen Michele Bachmann lately?”
Now that’s just mean and nasty.
I expect better than that from this site.
Naw, just kidding.
F*ck em. F*ck ’em all.
Learned it from the
bestworst of ’em.DaddyO_969 October 26th, 2014 at 9:42 am
Not only is he an idiot he’s totally incompetent as well. Which, in this case, is a good thing.
Cosmic_Surfer October 26th, 2014 at 10:02 am
And people wonder why Anwar al-Awlaki (a strong Law and Order, Conservative Republican who supported Bush for election because he disliked the radicalization happening in the Middle East and thought the Democrats would be soft on terrorist acts) turned against the US – after years of harassment and manipulation by the FBI and CIA as well as the Bush administration, the infiltration of provocateurs sent by the FBI to spy on and provoke Muslims in America, the agents posing to be prostitutes soliciting him when he stopped at stoplights trying to entrap him in order to force him to become a spy, the full scale harassment of anyone in a Berka or Turban; the paradigm built on and fearmongering behind Islamophobia, and outright physical attacks against anyone even perceived to be Muslim (ask the Sikhs)….
The US still refuses to believe it is what we DO and allow to be done in our name, by acting out in our willful and fearful ignorance, that creates the environment for acting out against us..
“The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.”
― Wade Davis
neworleans878 October 26th, 2014 at 10:12 am
“The US still refuses to believe it is what we DO and allow to be done in our name, by acting out in our willful and fearful ignorance, that creates the environment for acting out against us..”
Well said.
Cosmic_Surfer October 26th, 2014 at 10:32 am
Coming from the state that persecuted Ward Churchill for having the audacity to say just that to a class of college students, right after 9/11, (and I fully agreed with him then) I have watched that truth slowly sink in to a few of us…way too many still refuse to see that truth.
rg9rts October 26th, 2014 at 10:13 am
Pete King…divulger of secret agreements for political gain…