According to the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), following Friday's jihadist attacks in Paris, at least two mosques in the state have received phone calls threatening terror.
The U.S. Department of Justice is said to be investigating, and CAIR is calling for the perpetrators to be found and charged with hate crimes.
The Islamic Center of St. Petersburg received a call in which someone said: "We are tired of your [expletive] and I [expletive] personally have a militia that is going to come down to your Islamic Society of Pinellas County and firebomb you and shoot whoever is there in the head. I don't care if they are [expletive] 2 years old or 100."
The second threatened mosque was not named, but the caller to that mosque said s/he would "bomb your [expletive] location" and spoke of "shooting people at will."
CAIR-Florida Chief Executive Director Hassan Shibly said in a statement, "We thank the U.S. Department of Justice for its prompt investigation of these terror threats and urge that hate crime charges be brought against the perpetrator when he is apprehended."
CAIR condemned the Paris attacks Saturday, saying: “These savage and despicable attacks on civilians, whether they occur in Paris, Beirut or any other city, are outrageous and without justification. We condemn these horrific crimes in the strongest terms possible. Our thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones of those killed and injured and with all of France. The perpetrators of these heinous attacks must be apprehended and brought to justice.”
The group has repeatedly condemned terrorism.