Around fifty people gathered Friday, August 7, outside a Bloomington mosque, in Indiana, after the local mosque imam was attacked by two young men on his way to the evening prayer.
โMy reaction as a white person is not again. Not again,โ said Karen Wills, one of the organizers of the Friday event, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
โCouldnโt this just stop? This particular incident of a man having his shoulder fractured is just a ramped-up level of severity of the stuff thatโs just going on, day after day after day.โ
Abdulahi Farah, a lead organizer with the Muslim Coalition of ISAIAH, speaks with a group of allies of the Dar Al Farooq mosque in Bloomington.Christine T. Nguyen | MPR News
๐ Read Also: Here is One of Worldโs Most Beautiful Mosques, with Its Whirling Colors
According to police, two people assaulted imam Mohamed Mukhtar and left him with a fractured shoulder outside Dar Al-Farooq center.
Mosque officials say the attackers left the imam with a dislocated shoulder. He received treatment at Fairview Southdale Hospital.
Mohamed Omar, executive director of Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center
History of Attacks
Dar Al Farooqโs executive director, Mohamed Omar, said the constant discrimination toward the mosque has filled members with anxiety.
โEvery couple of months something happens,โ he said. โYou just cross your fingers that this time might not be a big mass shooting or might not be a big bomb.โ
The attack on the imam is not the first one targeting Bloomington Muslim community.
In 2017, a group of men drove from Illinois to bomb the mosque. One who pleaded guilty said they had hoped to scare Muslims out of the country.
Since the 2017 attack, neighbors and other supporters gather outside the mosque during Friday prayers to provide sense of safety.
Muslims also have been doing huge effort to counter hate.
Earlier this year, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) hosted the Challenging Islamophobia Conference.
Held on March, the event, the largest regional conference on challenging Islamophobia in the nation, brought together leading national experts on Islamophobia and community leaders.