MANKATO, Minn. – Five times a day many gather to pray at the Mankato Islamic Center, but fewer people have shown up since Sunday.
Mosque leaders say surveillance footage shows a man on a bicycle lighting something in the mosque’s parking lot before leaving.
Mankato police say they were “two bottle rockets” that went into the air without hitting or damaging anything.
It added that authorities “have no reason to believe that the Islamic Center was targeted and no investigation has been conducted.”
Abdi Sabrie, co-founder of the mosque, thinks differently.
“It stood right next to our sign and the dry leaves and the fence, and lit them up,” Sabrie said. “To me, what the city is saying is not correct.”
Sabrie expressed his concerns Tuesday night, saying he believes Mankato police are minimizing the safety of the Muslim-American community that calls Mankato home.
On Tuesday afternoon, police said they had spoken to the man in the video and that he “was not aware that such an act would cause alarm.” Police say he was cited for sale, possession and use of fireworks, which is a misdemeanor.
“You know, it puts us on edge every time something happens to a mosque,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR-Minnesota.
Hussein says Minnesota leads the nation in attacks on mosques with 12 this year and 40 in the past three years.
“We want to ensure that law enforcement agencies take every single threat seriously and do everything possible to ensure that the trust and the community can be assured that this is not an ongoing threat,” Hussein said.
Sabrie says he’s waiting to hear from law enforcement and city leaders about what needs to be done to rebuild trust in the community.
Mosque leaders say they will improve security with new cameras and will continue to keep the doors locked during prayer times.
