Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Florida spokesman Wilfredo Amr Ruiz said the arsonist was “terrorising our community because we don’t know where he is at and we don’t know what he is capable of doing”.
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The Islamic Center of Fort Pierce came into the spotlight when its imam, Syed Shafeeq Rahman, admitted to the media that Omar Mateen had been one of its worshippers.
Someone set fire to the mosque once attended by Omar Mateen, the man who opened fire at an Orlando nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, authorities said Monday. The mosque also once counted among its members Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, an American who killed several Syrian government soldiers in a 2014 suicide bombing in Jabal al-Arbaeen after joining the Taliban.
Mateen, who died in a June attack on the Orlando Pulse nightclub that killed 49 people, used to attend services at the Center. No one was injured in the fire, but authorities told CBS 12 there was substantial damage to the building, both inside and out. The fire burned a 10-by-10-foot (3-by-3-meter) hole in the roof at the back of the mosque’s main building and blackened its eaves with soot. “Video captured at the Fort Pierce Islamic Centre shows an individual approached the east side of the building just moments before a flash is seen and the fire starts”.
Thompson says given the circumstances – the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the beginning of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha – officials believe the intentionally-set fire could be a hate crime.
Ruiz noted that after the shootings the center received threatening voicemails. “We are stronger than that”, he said. She said the fire “makes me scared for my son”. Sheriff’s officials said they will be releasing the video and asking for the public’s help in identifying the person who set the fire.
The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation into the fire.
The Islamic Centre of Fort Pierce had an Eid prayer scheduled for 9 am Monday.
“It is with a very heavy heart that we have to announce that last night around midnight, there was an arson attack on our Mosque”, the Islamic Centre said in a statement early Monday.
Ahmed Bedier, a Muslim man and the president of United Voices for America, added that “an attack on any house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship”, and urged the community to “stick together”.
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Authorities said at the time they were unable to confirm “any racially motivated comments” were made but the suspect, Taylor Anthony Mazzanti, was arrested and charged with felony battery, according to the newspaper.
