FBI asked to investigate vandalism at Muslim home as a hate crime

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5/1/2006 11:00:00 AM GMT
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked the FBI to investigate vandalism at a Muslim home in suburban Atlanta as a hate crime, AccessNorthGa reported.

Vandals burnt the family's van and sprayed the words "Killers go home" on the side of their house in Douglas County on April 8.
The Muslim family and CAIR’s branch in Washington said local authorities had been slow to investigate the crime.
But Douglas County Chief Deputy Stan Copeland denied, saying that evidence from the scene had been sent to the state crime lab and that police patrols in the neighborhood have been stepped up as investigators seek new leads.
Copeland also said that a local FBI office has been notified about the incident.
Muhammad and Sania Kamran said someone smashed in the window of their minivan and torched it. Firefighters said that someone sprayed the words “Killers go home” on the wall.
The family immediately called the sheriff's department and filed a report.
Sania Kamran, a native of Pennsylvania whose husband is from Pakistan, said a woman insulted her for wearing the hijab at a local store weeks earlier.
In another incident, Kamran said someone wrote the word “killers” on her van, which had a license plate that read “Proud to Be Muslim”.
She said she decided to quit wearing Muslim outfits after the incidents.
"I'm just afraid," she said. "I have four young children; if someone did something, how would I protect them and protect myself?"
Kamran also said that her family hopes that the FBI will investigate the case, saying that the local sheriff's office doesn't seem to be doing enough. “If our local department can't do something, you've got to go to the next step," she said.
Copeland said his office would try to catch whoever is responsible for the attack.
"I don't care what your opinion is, we're not going to tolerate this kind of action," he said.
Copeland also said authorities believe the family’s religion was the motive behind the attack. "I'm afraid, with what's going on in the world now, there's somebody out there that just wanted to make a statement," he said.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said that Kamrans' experience was part of a growing pattern of anti-Muslim acts in the United States.
"We attribute it to a rise in Islamo-phobia in our nation," he said.
CAIR offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
Yusuf Burke, a CAIR representative in Atlanta, said there has been few similar incidents in Georgia. The most notable was the destruction of Islamic destruction of the Islamic Center of Savannah mosque by fire in 2003.
More recently, Burke said, there was minor vandalism at a mosque in Clarkston, and about two weeks ago a window was broken at a mosque in Fayetteville.
Burke said it’s necessary that local authorities fully investigate such incidents so that the perpetrators "don't think they can keep on doing it."
Georgia doesn’t have a state hate crime law. Its old law was thrown out by the state Supreme Court in 2004 for being too vague and efforts to revive the law in this year's Legislature failed.
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Note: Silly , repeated, Irrelevant, and the like, responses, posts, comments will be ignored (it depends on my mood and time if I won't ignore them), taking off the topic is losers' style, if I'm not replying to your relevant post maybe because of this , ask yourself: will you write such response if the writer wasn't a Muslim!
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Instead of muslims fighting other people and vice versa,
they should aim there thoughts at more important things,
instead of fighting about clothing, help kids in a 3rd world country or something *sigh*

 

Score one in the box of reason for Georgia. Hate crime laws are ignorant and misguided. Catch however did it and charge them with the appropriate crime--arson, trespass, vandalism, and possibly attempted murder if the van was close enough to the house.

 

^^^^^ I should have added reckless endangerment if it's not close enough to the house.