Cause of Mosque Fire in SouthWest Houston Declared "Incendiary". Chron.com
Authorities have upgraded the investigation of a Christmas Day fire at a southwest Houston mosque to "incendiary" and cited multiple points of origin in the two-alarm blaze as suspicious.
"As part of the investigative process, evidence is being collected and analyzed; and interviews are being conducted," the Houston Fire Department said in a release Saturday. "We want to reassure the public that we will conduct a complete and thorough investigation."
Which was followed by former Council Member, and current Islamic Community Leader MJ Khan warning folks to not make uneducated guesses as to the cause:
"Everything is damaged inside, except the copies of the Qur'an, which were miraculously not damaged," said MJ Khan, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, which operates the mosque. "We got them out last night."
He urged community members not to speculate about the cause of the fire. "Of course, there is sadness, there is anxiety," he said. "When people don't know, there are all kinds of concerns." But he said he took the opportunity at afternoon services Saturday to reassure the community.
Of course, this didn't stop CAIR from immediately doing so....
Houston Area Muslim Leaders Worry About Backlash. Leah Binkovitz, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) urged investigators to consider bias as a possible motive. After discovering multiple points of origin, the Houston Fire Department's arson bureau, working with the Houston police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, found that the fire was set intentionally.
Which then led to the Houston Chronicle's Gray Matter's section to choose to lecture Houstonians:
The Woman in the Hijab. Gray Matters, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
She was just another mom on just another Friday night in Sugar Land, tired and overworked and ready to get the shopping over with, except she wore a headscarf that told the world, "I am Muslim." And I hated her. I hated her for being out in public. I hated her for her faith. I hated her for making me wonder if Houston was the next target, if on some future Friday night, I would be mourning one of my loved ones, or my loved ones would be mourning me.
All of this designed to lecture, to allow writers to take their hatred, and misunderstanding, of Islam and Muslims and project it onto the City of Houston citizens as a whole, to expunge their individual guilt by assuring them that Houston, one of the most diverse cities in the world, was growing hotbed of anti-Muslim hate that mirrored their own personal feelings.
This was proven by two tragic Mosque fires, proof that Houstonians were targeting Muslims at an alarming rate.
Except none of it was true.
Man Charged with setting Mosque fire was a devout attendee. Carol Christian. Chron.com
According to a charging instrument released by the Harris County District Clerk, Moore told investigators at the scene that he has attended the mosque for five years, coming five times per day to pray seven days per week.
Man charged in Mosque fire denies hatred of Muslims. Brian Rosenthal, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
The 56-year-old homeless man with a drinking problem made headlines last year when he rode a bicycle up to an arson investigator and admitted he started a blaze that destroyed a storage building at the Quba Islamic Institute in south Houston.
This is not to suggest that there are no people in Houston who hold anti-Islamic beliefs. Of course there are. Just as there are people who are anti-Semites, racist and (if you read the Chron.comments) carry an unhealthy hatred of Christians.
What it doesn't mean is that Houston is somehow a viper pit of anti-Islam backlash waiting to explode with carnage, slaughter and hatred. It is important that this fact is not overlooked.
In Houston people work, shop, play every day surrounded by a vast variety of people of different races, creeds and religions. For the most part we coexist just fine. In the highly segregated world of Inner-Loop, relatively well-off Progressives however such integration is not often the case. Because they don't live and work around those who are much different from them ideologically, they have difficulty understanding how differing people can get along as most of us do.
So, as we start the New Year there's good news.
Despite what you're being told, and despite what people like CAIR, the Houston Chronicle and others would have you believe, for the most part we're all getting along about as well as can be expected in these times.
I don't know about you but that makes me feel pretty good.
As for the events that happened? Reasonable people can agree that arson and violence against our fellow law-abiding citizens is never a good thing. We can also think fire investigators and the police for efficiently doing the jobs to which they are assigned. It is important to remember that both of these suspects are innocent until proven guilty so let's allow the justice system to play itself out, and spend this New Year ignoring those who prefer to spend their time trying to kick up a viper's nest that doesn't appear to have any basis in reality.
