ISLAMIC CENTER IN TENNESSEE POSSIBLE TARGET OF ARSON; LEADING OPPONENT SPOKE AT NYC RALLY (VIDEO)

Well, we were hoping to have the videos from our weekend in DC up here at this point, but then this comes up and we had to break away from working on that to deal with this. Murfreesboro, TN is about 943 miles from New York City, and the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has been in town for about twenty years, but that hasn’t stopped the Islamophobes from mounting opposition against its expansion. For good measure, one of the chief hatemongers out of Nashville against that center named Laurie Cardozo-Moore treked up to the Aug. 22 rally in Lower Manhattan to lend her support and speak to those opposing Park 51, the Islamic Center that is being built there. Now the narrative has been that Park 51’s construction was not respecting the sensitivities of the families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center a few blocks away from where the center is being built. It simple: Park 51 is a center for Muslims, Muslims bombed the World Trade Center, hence all Muslims are accountable for Sept. 11, even the ones who have denounced those who did the attack – like Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, the man building Park 51. That narrative took a serious beating as speaker after speaker went on about things which had nothing to do with Sept. 11 and Park 51, especially Laurie Cardozo-Moore who decided to attack Muslims for not signing the Declaration of Independence and fighting in the Revolutionary War (she was wrong about that one, by the way). On Saturday, a week after that rally, construction vehicles were set on fire at the site of the Murfreesboro expansion. Police are saying it is arson. This, by the way, comes five days after the attack on a NYC cabbie because he was a Muslim – one day after the rally. It is particularly curious that with the exception of this video produced by us, you don’t find too much footage of the speeches from the rally,  not even from the organizers. We can’t blame them to be hones, but after this attack in Murfreesboro, we thought it would be a good idea to give you Cardoza-Moore’s speech there as we taped it. It will give you an idea of the hate that created the climate we see down there. That video is included in this link. 

Daily News Journal

One piece of construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was set afire in the overnight hours while others had gasoline poured on them, according to a spokesperson for the ICM.

Carmie Ayash, spokeswoman for the ICM, told The DNJ Islamic Center officials were contacted by the sheriff’s department around 1:30 a.m. Saturday in reference to the damaged equipment. It appeared gasoline had been poured on several pieces of equipment at the site and one was lit afire. Ayash said it appeared the responsible arsonist was spooked during the act and fled the scene before other equipment could be set on fire.

“We were contacted by police department around 1:30 a.m,” Ayash said Saturday afternoon. “They said someone had caught fire to some of the equipment. I think they lifted the hood and poured gas into the hood and set it on fire.

“The other equipment had gasoline poured on it but was not set on fire. It seems like it was intentional. Probably, whoever did it got caught in the middle of the act, got scared and left.”

Authorities working the scene did not specify whether gasoline or some other accelerant was used to start the fire.

Islamic Center officials have contacted the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, according to Ayash, and sheriff’s department investigators “told us they will be investigating this as a hate crime.” Ayash later said sheriff’s officials “asked her to correct her statement,” adding they plan to explore several different motives while investigating the arson.

Ayash said the most recent vandalism to the site “takes it to a whole new level.” The site has already been the target of two other vandalisms, both aimed at a sign marking the future site.

“Everyone in our community no longer feels safe,” she said. “To set a fire that could have blown up equipment and, God forbid, spread and caused damage to the neighbors there … we really feel like this is something that we and the neighbors don’t deserve. When they (ICM officials) called me this morning I started crying.”
Ayash said it appears the intention of the arsonist was to scare members of the Islamic community and she added the arsonist has succeeded.”

The spokeswoman told The DNJ that Islamic Center officials have tried, unsuccessfully, to contact construction company, Ole South Properties, Inc., about the arson to its equipment.

“They did hurt the construction company,” Ayash said. “It’s not hurting us. It did put us in a fearful state, so they did accomplish that. I don’t understand where this is coming from.”

Laurie-Cardoza Moore’s speech at the NYC rally