YPSILANTI- Federal officials are investigating a fire at the Islamic Center of Ypsilanti on Saturday that could possibly be a hate crime, according to police.
Pittsfield Township Fire Chief Sean Gleason told MLive that firefighters received numerous calls reporting a house fire, but they reached the scene only to find the mosque on fire. He said they extinguished it rapidly.
There were no injuries reported and no one was at the center at the time.
Gleason said officials called in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate.
Pittsfield Township Deputy Police Chief Gordon Schick said Pittsfield Township detectives and fire investigators are assisting the ATF. He has also contacted the FBI.
“We’re not excluding it possibly being a hate crime,” Schick said.
Michigan’s Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement on Sunday and offered a $1000 reward on information that leads to an arrest.
“We urge state and federal agencies to use their full resources to investigate this fire to determine a cause and, if it is determined to be arson, a possible motive,” CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid said. “Anyone who has information about this fire, or saw anything suspicious at the time of the blaze, should immediately contact law enforcement authorities.”
Both chiefs noted that a fire damaged an empty home on the same street on Feb. 27.
Gleason said they still don’t know the cause of the Feb. 27 fire.
2 Comments
ALI
March 12, 2017 at 10:36 pmAs long as Trump stays quiet about all these mosques since he opened his big mouth during his campaign about banning Muslims that have been from burnt down to vandalism, we will continue to see more. While Bush was the cause of many wars against Muslims nations and Obama and Clinton didn’t help, all previous presidents came out, Bush even stood in a Mosque and told these SOBs white supremacists to stop the hate.
Muslims better unite fast in USA and aboard because we are being pushed into being the new jews of Europe and while we want to bad for America to be put in its place by the destruction it has caused since it’s own diabolic of genocide they claim as reaching a “free world” That contains democracy. We as Muslims can’t wait for WW3 as Germany had when many nations (usa, UK and France) bombed the hell out of the movement Hitler had than seems his offspring Drumphf has gained. Don’t think China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have came all ally as of yet.
Petsounds
March 13, 2017 at 4:23 pmThe Ypsilanti area community has responded by exceeding the $20,000 asked for on the Launchgood page in less than 24 hours. This overwhelming response is indicative of the closeness of the Ypsilanti community. We are devastated that someone could have set this fire deliberately, and are gladly supporting our Muslim neighbors. I understand that the mosque issued a message, thanking donors, “particularly the interfaith community.” I am one of those donors, and I am an atheist. You don’t have to practice religion to love and care for your neighbors.