Long Beach, News

Anonymous letter threatens Long Beach mosque

On Friday, the Long Beach Islamic Center received a Donald Trump-praising letter that  threatened the Muslim community, leading to an increase in police protection for local mosques.

The anonymous letter said that Trump is going to make sure that “America is clean again” and that he was going to start by eliminating the Muslims.

    

The letter also describes the Muslim people as “filthy and vile.”

“It is alarming to us to see this [letter],” Tarek Mohamed, the chairman of the Long Beach Islamic Center, said. “It increases the fear. Not only in our community but for the rest of the communities as well.”

Mohamed said that the letter, which bore a fake address, also stated that Trump is going to do the same thing “that Hitler did with the Jews.” In other words, the author of the letter claims that Trump will eradicate the Muslims from the United States.

Since Trump’s election, there have been a number of hate crimes against people of color, according to the CNN article “‘Make America White Again’: Hate Speech and Crimes Post-election.” In addition to this letter, there have been racist graffiti writings all over the country showing the swastika with “Make America White Again” next to it.

“We started to receive negative comments ever since [Trump] started his campaign,” Mohamed said. “This is what he has started.”

The Long Beach Islamic Center has increased its security and wants a serious investigation into the source of the letter to take place.

“We want higher authorities to investigate this,” Mohamed said. “Higher authorities like the FBI.”

Some students at Cal State Long Beach reacted to the letter with messages of support for the Muslim community.

“Stand strong and do not let it scare you,” Ian Leblanc, a junior business and marketing major said. “I do not think [the killing and deportation of Muslims] is going to happen. I think that civil rights activists and just people in general are good these days. [Times are] different from back in pre-World War II Germany.”

Leblanc said that he believes that even though Trump told his supporters to stop all the violent hate crimes through the cameras of CBS,  he should still do something more to stop all the hate that is happening following his election in presidency.

Avery Andrus, a masters student in biology said the letter is inaccurate because “there has not been enough evidence that Trump is going to specifically persecute Muslims. It is horrible for [the authors of the letters] to incite violence like that.”

Andrus mentioned that if Trump is going to be our president, people should be working on being united.

She also suggested that people should learn more about the Muslim culture rather than fearing something they do not understand.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Daily 49er newsletter

Instagram