Two days after two Muslim husband-and-wife shooters mercilessly sprayed bullets at a social services centre in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people, Democratic Party lawmakers visited and even prayed at a mosque with historical links to terrorism and vowed to fight Islamophobia, WND reported.
Democratic Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia, Joe Crowley of New York, and Keith Ellison of Minnesota went on Friday to the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Northern Virginia, a mosque where deceased terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was once the imam. Convicted Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan also attended services there, the WND report said.
Amid the mounting fear of Islamic terrorism on the American homeland, Beyer issued a press release on Wednesday, saying, "intolerance and hatred have no place in American society."
"We are a diverse nation of immigrants whose shared cultural heritage is one of openness and inclusion. We must celebrate this diverse thread of our cultural cloth, not tear it apart," the Democrat said, apparently dismissing the threat posed by radical Islam.
A day after the California shooting, Beyer was at it again, telling the New York Times by phone, "Yesterday does make it a little harder. It's just another unfortunate data point. So, I think it's more necessary than ever to go talk to the people who have nothing to do with that."
A U.S. drone strike killed Anwar al-Awlaki, who became a popular al-Qaeda cleric in the Middle East, on Sept. 30, 2011 in Yemen.
Former U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 and wounded 32 others during the Nov. 5, 2009, terror attack at Fort Hood, Texas.
Representatives for the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center complained that its members have been heckled by passersby in recent weeks, the Washington Examiner said.
"Women taking their children to school have been heckled by passersby, and we experienced two incidences of hate violence," Imam Johari Abdul-Malik told the newspaper.
Two weeks ago, an unidentified man left a fake explosive at the building, mosque officials said.
