Islamic Center Set Afire
By KEITH MORELLI The Tampa Tribune
Published: Apr 13, 2007
TOWN - 'N COUNTRY - Local, state and federal investigators sifted through the ashes of a deliberately set fire at the Islamic Education Center of Florida on Thursday morning and tried to allay fears the arson was a crime of hate. They couldn’t say for sure, however.
Initial reports said there was an explosion, but responding firefighters said were unaware of any blast.
Area Muslims feared the torching of the building, which serves as a mosque and educational center for children, was a hate crime, the next progressive step from a burglary nine months ago in which the culprits set fire to several religious artifacts inside.
“It is a concern that this is a hate crime,” said Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Tampa, a Muslim advocacy group. Fueling the supposition was the fact that the FBI was at the scene collecting evidence.
FBI spokesman Al Rivera would not say for sure, though, that the arson was a hate crime.
“At this point, this is just an arson investigation,” he said Thursday evening
He said the FBI would be investigating any arson attempt at any house of worship, because of the civil rights issues.
Single Room Damaged
The fire, the damage of which was limited to one room, was caused by someone who splashed a flammable liquid through a broken window and down the outside of the building, fire officials said.
The alarm came in shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday in this working-class community made up of older townhouses. A neighbor reported hearing an explosion and seeing smoke and fire coming from the L-shaped building at 6450 Rockpointe Drive, west of George Road between Hillsborough Avenue and Memorial Highway.
Both gates along the 6-foot-high, chain-link fence were locked, said Hillsborough Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Ernie Wargo. They had to be cut to allow firefighters onto the property. No one was inside the center at the time, and no one was injured, he said.
Fire damage was limited to a room on the east side of the building, he said.
“There’s a lot of smoke damage and broken windows,” he said. "There doesn’t appear to be any structural damage.
“We put it out pretty quick,” Wargo said.
It took 20 minutes to extinguish the blaze. During that time, firefighters recovered a plastic gallon jug on the ground outside the building that reeked of a flammable liquid, investigators said.
The center has been the target of vandalism in the past, neighbors said, but mostly by juveniles who broke windows or damaged property outside.
Bedier said the center has been there for 15 years and Thursday morning’s arson was the fourth time over the past 18 months the building had been vandalized or broken into. The most recent occasion was nine months ago, when burglars set fire to the religious artifacts inside.
He said he hoped law enforcement officers would catch the arsonists, as area Muslims fear the next time will be worse.
“Obviously,” he said, “when ever a house of worship, particularly a Muslim house of worship, is attacked, our concern is that it is a hate crime.”
Federal authorities told him they are not ruling out hate as a motive, he said.
“This was not an accident,” he said. “This was arson.”
No Problem With Neighbors
Jabbar Al-Mashahdani, a center caretaker, said during the week, people are seldom there. Weekends are different. Muslims attend religious services and children, up to 30, ages 6 to 14, attend classes.
Never, he said, have people had a problem with the neighbors. “It’s a good relationship. When we’re not here, they take care of the building. And we appreciate that,” he said.
Bruce Tokarski, who lives adjacent the center, said he moved into his home a year and a half ago and had heard some flippant remarks about a terrorist camp behind the fence.
He watched as children ran around the playground and adults mingled under the trees and played soccer. His fears disappeared.
“This is a really quiet neighborhood,” he said.
I just found out about this news, very sad and heart breaking. We used to visit this mosque in ramzan or on eid couple years back. Later we found other mosques that were close to our home and were in somewhat safe areas therefore we stopped visiting this one. Still this is very sad…but this is a lesson for those who go out killing non believers and burning churches and synagogues. When your own people are killed and a mosque you used to pray in is set on fire, make you understand what other people go through when their people are killed and their religious places are burnt or attacked. So this is a lesson for everyone who spreads hatred for other religions and communities.
:teary1:
