Anti-Muslim Violence Up, Officials Say

Even as President Bush visited a local mosque in a plea for tolerance toward Arab Americans, law enforcement officials Monday reported an alarming surge in violence and possible hate crimes against Muslims in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks.

The FBI is investigating more than 40 possible hate crimes since last week, including arsons, assaults and at least three slayings--including one in Southern California--that may have been driven by racial hatred, authorities said.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller condemned what he called “vigilante attacks” and promised swift prosecution of those found responsible. But Islamic leaders suggested that the FBI has fueled the backlash against Arab Americans by detaining dozens of people of Middle Eastern heritage for questioning in its terrorist investigation, most of them on immigration charges unconnected to last week’s hijackings.

“There seems to be a ‘round up the usual suspects’ mentality out there” on the part of the FBI, said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “You’ve got a horrendous loss of life and property, and you’ve got heightened emotions bordering on hysteria because of it, and that’s where this [wave of hate crimes] is coming from.”

Bush sought to deliver a message of respect and tolerance for Arab Americans as he visited the Islamic Center of Washington on Monday for a 50-minute tour.

Removing his shoes as he entered the mosque out of respect for Muslim practice, Bush quoted from the Koran and highlighted Muslims’ many contributions to American society as doctors, lawyers, professors, members of the military and entrepreneurs.

“They need to be treated with respect,” Bush said, even as Americans grapple with the anger surrounding last week’s attacks at the hands of 19 suspects with strong ties to the Middle East.

Describing terrorism as a perversion of the religion, Bush said, “That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war,” and their violence “violates the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.”

Bush offered accounts of Muslim women wearing traditional head coverings who have been afraid to go shopping or carry on their daily routines. “That should not and that will not stand in America,” he said.

“Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America. They represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior,” the president said.

Among the possible hate crimes being investigated by authorities are the fatal shooting of an Indian immigrant gas station owner in Arizona on Saturday, as well as the fatal shooting the same day of a Pakistani Muslim grocer in Dallas.

In Phoenix, Maricopa County Dist. Atty. Rick Romley said Monday that the suspect in the Arizona killing targeted minorities in a shooting rampage that killed Balbir Singh Sodhi.

“Mr. Sodhi was killed for no other apparent reason than that he was dark-skinned and wore a turban,” Romley said.

The suspect, a 42-year-old man who was jailed on $1-million bail on a murder charge, allegedly told police after the shooting: “I’m an American. Arrest me. Let those terrorists run wild.”

In addition, authorities reversed course Monday and said they will now investigate whether the shooting death of an Egyptian man at the mom-and-pop store he owned in San Gabriel on Saturday was a hate crime. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said initially that it thought the owner, Adel Karas, was killed in a robbery, but the FBI will now probe a possible racial motive.

Authorities nationwide have reported numerous other possible hate crimes in recent days, including assaults on individuals and attacks on Islamic-linked centers and shops.

On Sunday evening, an explosion from what was probably a cherry bomb on the sidewalk outside the Islamic Center of San Diego forced worshipers to evacuate the building during a prayer service, police said.

Meanwhile, a fire that destroyed much of an Afghan and Persian restaurant Monday in Encino may have been caused by an arsonist, but a Los Angeles police spokesman said, “There’s no reason to believe this is a hatred incident.”

However, the owner and the manager of the Restaurant Golestan said they had received several anonymous phone calls since Tuesday from people making anti-Afghan statements and threatening to burn down the building.

Civil rights advocates and Arab American groups have set up hotlines to track the violence. Hooper at the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington said he believes the wave of violence is much worse than authorities have acknowledged.

“We’ve had probably closer to 400 [hate crimes] than 40--everything from a child being taunted at school to someone being shot dead,” Hooper said in an interview. “And from all the evidence, the attacks are intensifying.”

Islamic leaders are particularly upset about the way the FBI has handled its investigation, charging that those of Middle Eastern descent have been targeted.

In seeking to piece together the conspiracy that led to last week’s hijackings, the FBI has sent law enforcement agencies a list of nearly 200 people--the vast majority of them of Middle Eastern heritage--who are wanted for questioning because they are thought to have possible links to the case.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has also jailed numerous immigrants in New York and elsewhere in connection with the case. They are charged with immigration violations such as expired visas, but authorities acknowledge that the FBI has questioned all of them about possible links to the hijackings. Mueller disclosed Monday that the number of jailed immigrants has doubled in recent days to 49, all of whom can be detained for an unspecified “reasonable” time until their immigration cases are heard.

Justice Department officials have refused to provide details on many of the people being detained, saying the information is confidential. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said Monday that evidence indicates that associates of the hijackers remain at large and “may be a continuing presence in the United States.”

Mueller rejected the suggestion that the FBI has targeted anyone based solely on ethnic background.

“If that is a perception out there, I would like to dispel it. It is wrong,” he said.

“When we seek to interview and question an individual, we are doing so based on predictions that the individual may have information relating to acts that took place last week. We do not, have not, will not target people based solely on their ethnicity, period, point-blank,” he said.

In another move aimed at quelling anti-Arab activities, the FBI on Monday also issued an unusual condemnation of “vigilante hacking activity” by U.S. groups seeking to disrupt Internet service to countries they associate with last week’s airline hijackings.

In an advisory posted on an FBI Web site, officials warned Internet service providers worldwide to be on the lookout for “self-described ‘patriot’ hackers [targeting] those perceived to be responsible for the terrorist attacks” of the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

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Times staff writers Jube Shiver Jr. in Washington and H.G. Reza and Richard Winton in Southern California contributed to this report.