Surge in Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Follows News Of Beheading in Iraq

May 14, 2004

Source: Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-fvandals14may14,0,4128001.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

On May 14, 2004 Sun-Sentinel reported, "Three South Florida Islamic institutions have reported vandalism and threats in recent days as Muslims nationwide are experiencing a backlash to recent events in Iraq. In the two days after the public revelation of Nicholas Berg's beheading by masked men, dozens of calls have poured into the Council on American-Islamic Relations, national spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmed said. 'Centers and mosques are saying they have been threatened that if they don't condemn these terrorist attacks, that we will face the kind of fate that Nick Berg did,' she said. Not two hours after he condemned the brutal murder in a television news interview Wednesday, the religious leader of the Darul Uloom Institute said he returned to the Pembroke Pines school and mosque to learn of a letter left posted on the mailbox there. 'It said `Kill them all in the name of Allah,'' Maulana Shafayat Mohamed said."