Alwaght- Muslims in the US state of Florida are calling for an end to Islamophobia after a machete wielding vandal attacked a Mosque in the Titusville city, Brevard County.
The Islamic Society of Central Florida Masjid Al-Mumin Mosque , one of Brevard County’s four mosques and one of central Florida’s twenty worship centers was vandalized by a machete-wielding vandal man over the weekend. Part of the incident, in which the vandal destroyed cameras, lights, and electrical wiring, was caputred on CCTV cameras. Titusville Police detectives say the have made an arrest in connection with the vandalism of the Mosque.
Michael Scott Wolfe, 35, of Titusville, was arrested Monday evening in Titusville, and charged with criminal mischief to a mosque, a third degree felony.
The evidence revealed Wolfe entered the mosque carport at 11 p.m. and destroyed property with a machete and placed raw bacon in and around the front door.
Wolfe was transported to the Brevard County Jail. He is being held on a $2,000 bail. He is expected to appear before a judge Tuesday.
Florida’s Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, is urging federal officials to call it a hate crime. CAIR's Orlando Regional Coordinator Rasha Mubarak says it’s the 17th incident that’s taken place across the country in the past two months.
“From post-Paris attacks, Donald Trump’s rhetoric he’s been instilling in everyone, the shooting in California, Islamophobia—it’s real. It’s hitting home here in central Florida.”
She also reported an incident in which two Muslim women had to be escorted to their cars after being harassed outside of a local grocery store; in another incident, a Muslim man was insulted while in his car at a stop light.
Imam Muhammad Musri, head of the Islamic Center of Central Florida that the recently vandalized mosque is a part of, says the number of threats the community has received in-person and through social media has risen.
“Just as the nation’s alert level goes up, similarly we have to fear backlash and often it is translated with more threats, and this is honestly unprecedented.”
Muslims have been requesting more security at the region’s twenty mosques, according to Musri. But Imam Abu Farah of the American Muslim Leadership Council believes public education will ultimately protect the community from future attacks.
“Individuals that have committed acts of hate have been those who knew literally about Islam other than what they hear about in the media,” he says. “The key is an obligation from us as American Muslims to reach out.”
Farah and other Muslim leaders will meet with law enforcement agencies from across the region next month to discuss strategies for preventing indirect and direct attacks against Muslims.
A recent report notes that more mosque attack incidents were recorded in 2015 than in any year across the US since a leading Muslim rights body started keeping this tally.
According to the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Muslim advocacy group, 2015 accounted for the most ever cases in both the damage, destruction, vandalism category and the intimidation category. The Muslim rights body , added that the most recent cycle of Islamophobia is characterized by its violent tone.