IQNA

Photos of Woman Suspected of Setting Fires to New Mexico Mosque Released

12:27 - December 09, 2021
News ID: 3476863
TEHRAN (IQNA) – The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Division released four photos of a woman believed to have started multiple fires at the Islamic Center of New Mexico.

New Mexico mosque arsonist

 

The images, released on Wednesday, were taken from security cameras inside and outside the building on Yale SE.

“We value our partnerships with religious communities like the Islamic Center of New Mexico too highly to tolerate this kind of criminal behavior,” said Raul Bujanda, special agent in charge of the division. “We hope someone who knows who did this contacts us as soon as possible.”

The FBI has not yet determined if this was a hate crime.

Early on Nov. 29, the woman removed combustible material from a trash bin outside the mosque and set it on fire adjacent to an entry door. She also took some of the burning material and tried to set the playground area on fire. Mechanics from a shop across the street saw smoke and ran over to extinguish the fires before Albuquerque Fire Rescue arrived to douse the smoldering piles with water.

On Nov. 7, the same woman entered the near-empty building about 9 a.m., where she tried to set fire to the carpet in the women’s section of the main prayer sanctuary. A student at the mosque saw the woman and set off a fire alarm, causing the startled woman to run out while yelling an anti-Islamic obscenity, according to an Islamic Center spokesman.

The woman is believed to have entered the mosque on the evening of Oct. 31 and threatened the mosque’s religious leader, telling him she was going to “burn this place down.”

 


Source: abqjournal.com

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