Minn. governor: Attack on mosque ‘wretched’
FBI investigation of the Saturday bombing continues.
Gov. Mark Dayton visits mosque where bomb shattered windows as people gathered for prayers.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith visited the Dar Al Farooq Islamic center in Bloomington Sunday morning, the day after a bomb rocked the building.
Dayton described the incident as “so wretched. Not Minnesota.”
An FBI investigation into an “incendiary explosive device” used at the Islamic center continued Sunday.
No one was hurt in the explosion, which heavily damaged an imam’s office at the center and sent smoke through the large building. Windows in the office were shattered, either by the
blast or by an object thrown through them.
The blast was reported at 5:05 a.m. Saturday as about
a dozen people gathered in a room nearby for morning prayers, and jolted awake
many residents of the neighborhood.
Congregants and neigh- bors expressed relief that there were no injuries, but also reacted with shock and dismay.
When police arrived, they found smoke and fire damage to the building, said Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts. Agents from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives soon joined the investigation.
Witnesses have been interviewed, evidence has been sent to various labs, and video and cellphone data are being analyzed, the FBI said.
Even before the FBI update, congregants said the blast appeared to be a hate crime.
Mohamed Omar, the center’s executive director, who was in the building when the explosion occurred, said one worshiper saw a pickup truck speed out of the parking lot after the blast.
On Sunday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported that “Islamophobic trolls” had flooded its Facebook page with messages supporting the bombing. The group’s website posted screen images of some of the messages.