NEWBURY PARK : Mosque Targeted by Threatening Callers
A tiny Muslim mosque in Newbury Park received at least 20 threatening telephone calls in the days since the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.
“It seems like any time something like this happens, everybody looks to the Muslims,” said Hussam Kazi, one of about 15 members of the Islamic Center of Conejo Valley.
A few death threats were left on the mosque’s answering machine, Kazi said.
“It angers me,” he said. “But I do understand how that happens.”
A few of the calls included death threats, but Kazi and other mosque members weren’t concerned enough to call police.
“They’re just negative crank calls,” he said. Once the FBI announced it was questioning two Midwestern men in the bombing, the calls stopped, he said.
“It has become so natural to blame these things on Muslims and Middle Easterners,” he said. “But anybody can do this anywhere.”
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
