FEBRUARY 14, 2015
HOUSTON, TEXAS
Houston fire
department says the cause of the incident had not yet been officially released
but mosque leaders say they were told the fire was started deliberately.
Arson investigators
are examining a fire at an Islamic centre that has put many in Houston’s Muslim
community further on edge in the wake of this week’s killings of three Muslims
in North Carolina.
Firefighters were
called to a blaze at the Quba Islamic Institute in south-east Houston at around
5.30am on Friday, 45 minutes before morning prayers were scheduled to begin. No
one was injured and the flames were extinguished in less than an hour, but one
of three buildings was destroyed.
A Houston Fire
Department spokesman told the Guardian on Saturday that the cause of the
incident had not yet been officially released. Ahsan Zahid, son of the mosque’s
imam, said that he was told the fire was started deliberately.
“When we spoke to
the investigator he told us that it was an incendiary fire, which means that it
was a suspected arson, that someone intentionally set the place aflame,” Zahid
said in a video message on the institute’s Facebook page.
“And when we asked
if it could have been any type of accident they said that it was not an
accident, it was no type of electrical fault or any fault of our own, but that
it was started by a person.
Zahid said the
building housed materials that were going to be used for a renovation project,
including computers. Zahid Abdullah, the imam, told the Guardian the building
was not insured and that replacing it and its contents could cost in excess of
$300,000. He said morning prayers at the mosque were usually attended by 100 to
200 people on Fridays.
Ruth Nasrullah,
communications co-ordinator for the Houston chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations-Texas, was at a nearby mosque on Friday night. She
told the Guardian two arson investigators visited to ensure that worshippers
“felt safe and that they had safety precautions in place ... They did tell me
that it was definitely on purpose, so it was arson, gasoline was used as the
accelerant.”
Ahsan Zahid told
Reuters that earlier in the week a man with his face covered was seen behaving
suspiciously on the premises, and on Thursday someone drove by the centre and
shouted mocking phrases in Arabic.
“We were leaving
the premises, and a person driving a pickup truck was chanting in Arabic
phrases, like terrorists do before they explode suicide bombs,” he said.
Three Muslim
students were shot dead in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Tuesday night what
some suspect may be a hate crime, adding to fears that recent high-profile
murders of Westerners in the Middle East by Islamic militants are increasing
tensions.
“There’s really
rising anti-Muslim sentiment in this country that we see manifested in a number
of ways,” Nasrullah said. “We’re always on a heightened sense of alert, we’re
aware that there could potentially be danger to ourselves or to the mosques. It
varies however according to the different locations.”
“Of course everyone
is concerned, that’s the sort of thing, it was such a drastic incident, that it
would naturally increase everyone’s sense of concern and wanting to be more
vigilant with safety procedures. It definitely had an impact.”
Abdullah said the
Quba institute is now planning to upgrade its security, including the
installation of cameras.
Houston is the
fourth-biggest city in the US and the most racially and ethnically diverse
large metropolitan area in the country, according to an analysis of census
data. An estimated 1.2% of Houston’s population is Muslim, double the national
average.
But another Houston
mosque was a target for arsonists in 2011, while in 2006, residents in one
suburb mobilised against a plan to build a mosque, claiming that it could
become a breeding ground for terrorists and prompting a local farmer to hold
pig races on Fridays, a holy day for Muslims.
A gathering in
Austin on 29 January for Texas Muslim Capitol Day was disrupted by protesters
who shouted insults including “Go home”, “remember 9/11” and “Isis will gladly
take you”.
Molly White, a
Republican state representative for Belton, in central Texas, provoked
controversy when she posted on her Facebook page that morning that she “did
leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to
staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic
terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. We
will see how long they stay in my office.”
Abdullah said he
was encouraged by the support and sympathy offered to the institute from people
in Houston and beyond following the fire, and that he would respond with
compassion.
“If you know
Muslims, we trust God,” he said. “If some crazy guy has done it, I still make
prayer for him.”