This story comes to you from The Minnesota Star Tribune through a partnership with Sahan Journal.
Members of a Mankato mosque say they suffered what they call a “brazen” attempted arson on Sunday and have called for the public to help police find the culprit.
The Mankato police, however, said the Islamic Center of Mankato is not facing any threat and authorities are not investigating the incident.
“Authorities have no reason to believe that the Islamic Center was targeted,” Paul David, spokesman for the city of Mankato and its Department of Public Safety, said in a statement Tuesday morning.
The disputed events involve a surveillance video showing a man on a bicycle stopping in the parking lot near the Islamic Center on Sunday afternoon.
Members of the mosque were waiting for midday prayer and said they noticed the man was behaving suspiciously, said Abdi Sabrie, a co-founder and board member of the mosque.
Sabrie said the video shows the man lighting something and holding it to leaves and brush on a wall by the Islamic Center in an attempt to set a fire. Attendees inside the mosque chased the man away.
But police disputed this description of the incident, with Tuesday’s statement saying the man was lighting two bottle rockets that went off into the sky without hitting or damaging anything.
Sabrie, who was not at the mosque during the incident, said he spoke to members who were there that day who disagree with the police version of what happened.
“They seem to be minimizing the incident,” Sabrie said. “Why would you come with a firecracker to a place with dry leaves, near the Islamic Center. … It doesn’t make sense. I’m more concerned about the police response than the guy we drove away.”
Members of the Islamic Center, as well as the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), had said the incident was part of a pattern of anti-Muslim attacks.
“We are deeply troubled by this incident and call for a thorough investigation to bring the perpetrator to justice,” Jaylani Hussein, CAIR-Minnesota spokesman, said in a statement Monday.
Hussein said the incident marks the 40th attack on a mosque in Minnesota over the past three years. In 2023, one attack led to a St. Paul mosque being heavily damaged by fire.
Sabrie, the board member at the Islamic Center, said many in the Muslim community in Mankato worry that the alleged incident is related to the recent re-election of Donald Trump. He said the president-elect’s first term led to an increase in anti-Muslim vandalism attempts.
In 2016, a shirtless man attempted to tear down the Islamic Center’s sign, and in 2021, two vandals spray-painted slurs on a car owned by a member of the mosque.
“It seems like 2016 all over again,” Sabrie said, adding that the mosque will be buying new and more sophisticated surveillance cameras, and it’s encouraging its members to be more vigilant, he said.
