Georgia Mosque Gets Same Hateful Letter Also Sent to California Locations

SAVANNAH, GA — A hateful letter threatening Muslims that was sent to at least five mosques in California has also been sent to the Islamic Center of Savannah, the Georgia chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations said in a statement.

Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of CAIR Georgia, said his office found out about the letter sent to the Savannah mosque on Saturday. Mitchell told Patch it was disconcerting that the letter was sent to several mosques in California and to a mosque in Savannah.

"I can't make sense of it," he said.

A man who runs the mosque told a responding police officer he received a threatening letter in the mail, according to a Nov. 27 Savannah-Chatham Police Department report. The letter stated that there was a new sheriff in town (in reference to President-elect Donald Trump) and he was going to get rid of all Muslims in America and clean the country like Hitler did to the Jews, according to the report.

The letter appeared to be a copy and had a return address of Savannah but was mailed from California, the report said.

The responding officer said he did not read any direct threat in the letter. He issued a case report number and advised the man who runs the mosque how to obtain a copy of the police report. The officer also told the man who made the complaint that if he felt that he needed to take the letter to the FBI he could but did not advise him either way about what to do.

Stephen Emmett, a spokesperson for the FBI's field office in Atlanta, did not comment on the particular case but told Patch via email that in such cases the FBI is focused on determining if a "specific and targeted threat exists vs protected, albeit vile, expression or speech."

Mitchell, with CAIR Georgia, said he had sent a message to Muslim leaders in the state and instructed them to let him know if they receive such letters.

Meanwhile, officials with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, the FBI and local Muslim leaders held a press conference on Monday to address the letters that have been sent to five mosques in California.

On Saturday, CAIR reported that the letters were sent to two mosques in Southern California and to one mosque in Northern California. At the press conference Monday, officials said the letter was sent to four locations in Southern California: the Islamic Center of Claremont, the Islamic Center of Long Beach, the Islamic Center of Southern California in Central Los Angeles and a mosque in Northridge. The same letter was also sent to the Evergreen Islamic Center in San Jose, California.

The letter is addressed "To the children of Satan." The handwritten letter calls Muslims a "a vile and filthy people" and says Trump is going to cleanse America, starting with Muslims, saying Trump would do to them what Hitler did to the Jews.

Click here to read the full letter. (Warning the letter contains disturbing and hateful language)

At the press conference in Los Angeles, officials with all law enforcement agencies urged community members that if they report any such letters they receive, even if it may not be a crime.

"If it's an incident that delivers hateful rhetoric, it's important for us to learn and understand where that's coming from so that we can do several things," Mike Downey, deputy chief of the LAPD, said at the press conference.

In this particular case, Downey said one of the things authorities would do is conduct an investigation to see if a crime did indeed take place.

Commander John Stedman of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department echoed Downey's statement, saying the main thing authorities were looking for is reporting. He called the letters hateful and inappropriate and said it does no good if people keep such incidents to themselves.

"We are here to stand united," Stephen Woolery, FBI special agent in charge, said at the press conference. "We are committed to protecting the community, we're committed together to show unification whenever there is any kind of expression, any kind of incident of hate or bias directed not just to our Muslim-American community but our community at large."

Lowery said various local police departments have investigations open at this time. At the time, the letter are considered hate incidents and not hate crimes.

Speaking directly to the person who wrote the letter, Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, referred to him or her as a coward. Al-Marayati said the problem of anti-Muslim sentiment was not a Muslim problem but an American problem.

CAIR's national office said it has seen a spike in incidents targeting American Muslims and other minority groups since the presidential election. Anxieties are high in the Muslim community due to the hateful rhetoric directed toward them during the election season, with Trump at one point calling for a complete and total shutdown of Muslims in the country. However, in his Thanksgiving message, Trump said it was his prayer that Americans begin to heal their divisions and move forward as one country.

Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center said it has documented more than 700 incidents of hateful harassment since the election. Patch has also reported on numerous incidents motivated by hate and racism since the election.

In response to the spike in anti-Muslim incidents, CAIR has called for stepped-up law enforcement and has advised members of the Muslim community to be vigilant. The civil rights group is asking Muslim community members to report any bias incidents to police and to CAIR's Civil Rights Department at 202-742-6420 or by filing a report online.

Image via Google Street View of Islamic Center of Claremont