Muslim community leaders are calling on Minneapolis authorities to investigate whether there’s a link between a break-in at a south Minneapolis mosque Tuesday and a fire at the same mosque last week.
Alhikmah Islamic Center leaders said at a news conference Tuesday evening that the mosque’s security footage shows a woman approach the building at around 8 a.m. that morning, walk down some stairs to a basement entrance where a fire broke out last week, walk back up and then smash the window of a side door.
Abdirizak Kaynan, the mosque’s imam, said a worshipper confronted the woman when the woman entered the building through the side door. The woman made repeated threats that she was there to set the mosque on fire. Kaynan said another worshipper arrived and called 911, and they were told by the operator to call 311 instead. Kaynan then called 911 himself.
“I told them [911 dispatch], ‘Hey, this is a very serious situation. Someone is trying to burn our mosque, and at the same time you’re telling us to call 311?’” he said. “That’s not logical.”
One worshipper forcibly pushed the woman out of the entryway and back outside after she had refused to leave. They then followed the woman as one of them called 911 again; police then responded to the scene and arrested the woman.
“Unfortunately, our fears that we had last week became a reality this week,“ said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “If that worshipper was not inside, we could be coming into a building completely engulfed and lost.”
Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Garrett Parten confirmed that a woman in her 30s was arrested a few blocks west of the mosque Tuesday and booked into Hennepin County Jail for allegedly damaging property and for an outstanding warrant.
Parten said police will investigate any possible connection between last week’s fire and Tuesday’s break-in.
The mosque’s security footage showed someone community members believe to be the same woman leaving the mosque about 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 29 shortly before a fire broke out at the basement entrance. No injuries were reported, and the mosque’s brick structure prevented the fire from spreading throughout the building, which also houses a daycare in the basement serving about 50 children.
The Minneapolis Fire Department said at the time that the fire was accidental and possibly caused by homeless people using the stairwell, but community members disagreed.
“We believe this individual is the same individual who came back again and tried to finish the job,” Kaynan said. “We believe this is a hate crime, we believe this is Islamophobia, and we believe this person intentionally tried to burn our Islamic center.”
Hussein said multiple incidents at the mosque show a concerted effort to target it for religious reasons. Alhikmah Islamic Center’s parking lot was the site of a hit-and-run last year.
The police investigation so far shows a lack of urgency, said Hussein, who called on law enforcement to investigate the incident as a hate crime and to take threats against Muslims more seriously.
“As a community, we will feel safe when we believe law enforcement is engaging honestly with us, and also investigating these matters seriously,” he said.
