Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s holiest festivals, was being celebrated on Monday and also could have prompted the attack, Major David Thompson, of the St Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, said.
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A huge fire that broke out overnight at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce – known as a place where Orlando shooter Omar Mateen used to pray – is now believed to have been set on fire intentionally.
Investigators say that a huge fire at a mosque in Fort Pierce, Florida Sunday was a deliberately set.
A mosque in the USA state of Florida has been set ablaze by an arsonist during the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, authorities said, without ruling out that it was a hate crime.
“Our community is bigger than a building. We’re not sure, but it is possible that the male sustained burns on that hand”, said Maj. Police say the building was unoccupied at that time.
In June, the Islamic Center’s imam, Syed Shafeeq Rahman, distanced himself and the mosque from Mateen and, more generally, from extremist ideology. No one else was injured in the fire.
Later Monday morning, a hole could be seen in the roof, with burned wood underneath and soot on some of the eaves.
Surveillance video showed a white or Hispanic man riding up on a Harley Davidson-style motorcycle, Thompson said. St. Lucie County Fire District crews responded and extinguished the fire.
Investigators suspect arson in the blaze that destroyed the mosque, according to ABC News.
“Today was supposed to be a day of this community exchanging gifts with their kids, visiting their family members, having dinners, having lunches”, Wilfredo Ruiz, a spokesman for the mosque, said at a Monday afternoon news conference in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Forty-nine people were killed and another 53 injured on June 12 when Mateen, a 29-year-old USA citizen of Afghan origin, opened fire on the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. He was shot dead by police after taking hostages and declaring his allegiance to the self-styled Islamic State group.
Shortly after the massacre, the mosque in Fort Pierce was identified as Mateen’s place of worship.
Ruiz noted that after the shootings the center received threatening voicemails.
It is too early in the investigation to connect 9/11 or the Pulse attacks to the fire, Thompson said.
Authorities were working on enhancing the security video to help identify the perpetrator.
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Michael Parsons, 22, was standing outside his parents’ home, directly across the street from the mosque. He noted that since the Orlando shooting, “a lot of people have been driving by hollering and yelling expletives at the church or mosque or whatever they call it”. These guys flying the American flag on their trucks dont really know what the freedom is theyre fighting for..
