Members of a Minneapolis mosque are shaken after someone threw a bomb through the window Saturday before morning prayers.
None of the 15 to 20 people there were hurt, though part of the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington was damaged, the Associated Press reports. Local police confirmed that a destructive device had caused the explosion. The FBI has taken charge of the investigation.
“It was 5 a.m.,” Mohamed Omar, the center’s executive director, told the Star Tribune. “The whole neighborhood was calm. People were supposed to be sleeping, that’s how peaceful this should be. I was shocked to learn this happened.”
Witnesses say they saw a van race away after something was thrown at the Imam’s office. Those at the scene were able to put out the fire before police arrived.
“We came to this country for the same reason everyone else came here: freedom to worship,” said Yasir Abdalrahman, a worshipper at the mosque, which serves the majority Somali-population in the area. “And that freedom is under threat. Every other American should be insulted by this.”
The mosque is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction.