A mosque in Austin, Texas is planning to beef up security following the Paris terror attacks and assault on a Muslim student in the city.
Umber Esmail, imam of the Nueces Mosque near the University of Texas, said they want to ensure that students are safe when they come to the mosque.
"We need to provide security for them, that should be our top priority," Esmail told KEYETV.
Esmail also said a Muslim student was pushed to the ground in the city by a passerby a day after the Paris attacks.
"Because he had headphones on, the guy yelled at him saying are you taking instructions from ISIS? This is like a wakeup call for us, we need to do something because we have students coming here," he said.
KXAN reported that the student was wearing a Muslim Students Association shirt and the man spat in his face three times and said, "Are you getting orders from ISIS ... you dirty [expletive]."
The student posted the incident on the UT Class of 2019 Facebook group.
"It sickens me to know that no matter how hard I try, there still exists a blur between myself and the decency a human life entails," said the student.
The student said he hates ISIS just like other Americans but has to pay the price for being a Muslim.
Esmail said they are asking the Austin police to do a security survey on the mosque to see what can be improved to increase security including changing locks.
"If these bushes were so high they were covering the window and they left a lot of space for a bad guy to hide behind we would ask the homeowner to trim those bushes back," said Austin Police Department Officer Darrell Grayson.
Grayson said since the Paris attacks they have increased patrols around mosques and churches.
"We don't have any specific threats against any church or mosque or anything but it's just we want to stay ahead of it," he said.
