HARTFORD- Hartford’s Muslim community is looking for answers after a violent threat was made against a local mosque late last month.
On Sunday March 24th- an unknown caller threatened to kill worshipers at the Muhammad Islamic Center of Greater Hartford. The person also made racist statements towards African-American Muslims and threatened to burn the mosque down.
Since then- regular worshippers have been afraid to come back to the mosque until the suspect is arrested. Faith leaders say five families have already pulled their children from the mosque’s weekend school and fear many others won’t return.
“People in the community are feeling afraid, we had to increase our security, and we have to spend money on camera systems,” said Kashif Abdul-Karim
Friday afternoon, Senators Saud Anwar, Douglas McCrory and Richard Blumenthal joined FBI officials and Hartford Police to discuss what’s being done to keep members of the mosque out of harm's way.
“The last thing we want to see happen is for us to miss something, ignore something and have a tragedy occur, so we take all of this seriously as if it's our own church, our own house of worship, because it could very well be,” FBI Specialist Charles Grady said.
The FBI said they have identified the individual who made the call, but no arrests have been made and no further details can be released as the investigation is still active.“We have assigned additional uniform officers on foot patrol in this area on almost a daily basis, to give this area extra attention,” Hartford Police Chief William Long said.