Muslim community leaders say they are “on edge” after a fire at a mosque in south Minneapolis, and are calling for authorities to further investigate.
The fire broke out at about 5:30 p.m. Monday near the closed-off basement entrance of Alhikma Islamic Center, the Minnesota chapter of Council of American Islamic Relations said in a news release. The fire began after an unidentified individual was seen on the mosque’s security footage leaving the area near the basement entrance, the news release says.
The brick structure of the building prevented the fire from spreading, and no injuries were reported, according to CAIR-MN.
In a news release on Tuesday, the Minneapolis Fire Department said that the fire was accidental. The release said the fire, which began among rubbish near the entrance, was potentially caused by homeless individuals in the area using the stairwell.
CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that he and other community leaders don’t think the Minneapolis police and fire departments have investigated the fire thoroughly or kept the community updated.
“No one asked questions, no one checked the cameras, no one asked us if we felt we were unsafe,” he said. “We didn’t even know if somebody would come back or if all of our other mosques were under target. We’re extremely disappointed.”
Abdirizak Kaynan, the mosque’s imam, said a day care serving about 50 children operates in the basement of the mosque near where the fire took place. He said when police responded, community members asked police to investigate the fire as a possible hate crime. He said the police took that request “lightly.”
“If this happened at any other house of worship in a more affluent neighborhood in Minneapolis, a different result would have happened,” Hussein said. “But yesterday, they treated this as a dumpster fire in an empty lot, when there were children literally feet away from that fire.”
In an email, Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Garrett Parten said investigators spoke with officials from the building directly and made arrangements for the surveillance video. He said the investigation is ongoing.
“The Minneapolis Police and Fire Department takes all community members’ concerns seriously,” Parten wrote.
Community members said the mosque has been targeted before. Last year, a community member was hit by a man in a car in a hit-and-run incident in the mosque’s parking lot.
Ahmed Anshur, with the Islamic Association of North America, pointed to another fire which was reported on the property of Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington earlier this month. Leaders at the mosque told Sahan Journal that after Friday prayers on Sept. 5, a fire broke out in a shed near the mosque after an unidentified male was seen walking near the shed. Bloomington Fire Chief Ulie Seal told Sahan Journal after that fire that he had “no indication or no reason to believe that this fire was a hate crime.”
Anshur said at Tuesday’s news conference that the community still feels anxious and unsafe.
“This insecurity and the feeling of lack of safety in our Islamic centers has to stop,” he said.
