Caller ID links man to mosque threat, cops say
Aman who said he’s being targeted by Muslims for converting to Judaism has been charged with threatening to blow up a mosque, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Shawkat Mzayek, 38, of Sunrise, was taken into custody Thursday, hours after the Islamic Center of South Florida in Pompano Beach was evacuated as the Sheriff’s Office conducted a search after the telephone threat.
No explosives found.
Mzayek called the mosque at 1641NW15th St. and said, “Your mosque is going to be blown the f--up tonight. We are going to kill all of you and ISIS in America,” according to a Sheriff’s Office arrest report.
It didn’t take long to find Mzayek because a phone number linked to him was on the mosque’s caller ID system.
The phone was registered to Mzayek’s wife.
When detectives spoke were to him at the couple’s department, he told them about an altercation with workers at aMuslimowned convenience store and said he felt threatened after converting Islam to Judaism. “Shawkat believes that due to this the Muslim community considers him a dead man and feels as if he is targeted by them now,” according to the report.
Mzayek is charged with making a false bomb threat.
When he was arrested Thursday, Mzayekwas out of jail on a $6,000 bond after a June 15 arrest in Sunrise. In that case, Mzayek is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed firearm. He is accused of pulling gun on a driver at Oakland from Park Boulevard because themanwasn’t turning quickly enough, a police report said.
On Friday afternoon, Mzayek appeared in front of Broward JudgeMelinda Kirsch Brown who ordered him held without bond because of the previous arrest.
Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, director of AMANA, the American Muslim Association of North America, in Miami, said the incident “of such hate” scaredthecommunity. “They are so peaceful, theywant to just pray.”
He doesn’t believe Mzayek’s claim, saying Muslims think they get punished for abandoning their faith, but by God, and not by man, he said.
“That’s 100 percent not true. We don’t judge people,” he said. “His new religion should punish him more because he’s Jewish, not Muslim now. I believe Judaism should have taught him not to be violent. If you convert, you should be taught the right thing.”