Quote: Gov. Mark Dayton condemned Sunday the bombing of a suburban Minneapolis mosque as "an act of terrorism."


He, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith and other elected officials toured the site and met with local leaders of the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington Sunday morning.

Early Saturday, an explosive device shattered windows and damaged an office at the mosque, which primarily serves people from the area's large Somali community.

"What a terrible, dastardly, cowardly terrible act this was that was committed yesterday," Dayton said. "As someone said in the meeting, if the roles were reversed, it would be called a terrorist attack. And that's what it is, an act of terrorism." 

Smith agreed.

"That action is despicable and hateful, but it does not represent who Minnesota is," Smith said. "It does not represent the vast majority of the people who live in this fantastic state." 

State representatives Ilhan Omar, DFL-Minneapolis, and Andrew Carlson, R-Bloomington as well as Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota. 

FBI investigating mosque explosion in Minneapolis suburb, Muslim society offering $10K reward

The FBI is seeking suspects and trying to determine whether the incident Saturday was a hate crime.


"Anything I could do to put a stop to it, I would gladly do," Dayton said. "Because in Minnesota, we accept one another, we support one another, we respect one another.  ... We're not going to let one bad person get in the way of all that."

Asad Zaman, director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, said six Muslim groups have combined their resources to offer at $24,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator. 

Rep. Ilhan Omar on Sunday toured the damage caused by an explosion at Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. The FBI is trying to determine whether the incident was a hate crime. (Photo: Courtesy of Muslim American Society of Minnesota)

Mohamed Omar, the center’s executive director, estimates the mosque holds up to 300 worshippers for Friday prayers. The mosque opened at the site of a former elementary school in the suburb of about 85,000 and serves people primarily from the area's large Somali community. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the U.S., roughly 57,000 people, according to the latest census figures.

Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead noted the Islamic center has been in the city for six years. 

"It has grown to be an important part of our community going forward," Winstead said. "And we're happy to have them here. That said, when there's an attack on part of our community, it's an attack on our entire community." 

Police say there were no injuries, but the explosion damaged the imam's office.

Investigators have recovered components of the device to figure how it was put together.

Muslim groups are noting an uptick in anti-Muslim incidents across the country. There have been reports of arson attacks and vandalism at mosques, harassment of women wearing Muslim head coverings and bullying of Muslim schoolchildren. Just recently in Minnesota, an Islamic cemetery in Castle Rock Township reported it had been vandalized with spray painted profanities and swastikas.

The national office of the Council on American-Islamic relations, or CAIR, recently released a report showing a 57 percent increase in anti-Muslim incidents in 2016 over the previous year. The Washington-based Muslim civil rights organization also noted the spike in anti-Muslim incidents was accompanied by a 44 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes during the same period.

Law enforcement officials investigate an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minn., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017. (Photo: David Joles, AP)

CAIR and the Muslim American Society of Minnesota documented anti-Muslim Facebook posts responding to news of the bombing, including calls for more violence. Ellison said the uptick in hate preceded the election of President Donald Trump, but Trump has not helped the situation. 

"I could tell you that other (presidents), including President Bush, have spoken up for tolerance," Ellison said. "We're hoping for a word from President Trump to say that we want a tolerant community and we will condemn all hate crimes by anyone, including against the Muslim community."

However, Ellison said, he's heartened by the local response since the bombing. 

"There is no better way to condemn the person who would throw the bomb into this mosque, this house of worship, than to react in a loving, kind and inclusive way," he said.

Leaders at Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center have setup a a Gofundme page to raise money to repair damage from the bombing. It is available at [url=https://www.gofundme.com/support-dar-al-farooq-center]gofundme.com/support-dar-al-farooq-center. The page has raised more than $19,000 from more than 400 people in just under a day, as of Sunday afternoon.

(08-07-2017, 12:13 AM)Vlad Wrote: Perhaps the Minnesota governor was premature in calling it terrorism...
 
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, describes the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror or fear, in order to achieve a political, religious or ideological aim. It is used in this regard primarily to refer to violence against civilians or non-combatants.

I wonder what on earth would make someone want to hurt Muslims.

I doubt it has to do with any of the three in the definition above.

(08-07-2017, 09:45 AM)GMDino Wrote: I didn't bold that above....


They blew up a mosque.  

(08-07-2017, 11:32 AM)Vlad Wrote: Who cares??

Your topic title was Minnesota governor calls mosque bombing 'act of terrorism'  and I disputed it was terrorism by it's very definition.

Quote:the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror or fear, in order to achieve a political, religious or ideological aim. 

Quote:Days after an explosion rocked a Minnesota mosque, President Donald Trump has yet to publicly offer his support to the community.

Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center, in Bloomington, was attacked early Saturday morning with what the FBI has called an “improvised explosive device.” No one was hurt, although people were in the building at the time. The explosion shattered windows, damaged the imam’s office and sent smoke throughout the center.


Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) called the attack “an act of terrorism.”


Trump has tweeted about a number of things since Saturday. He’s found time to brag about his strategy on North Korea, criticize The New York Times and other media outlets, and bully a Democratic senator. But he hasn’t addressed the explosion in Minnesota.


New York Times correspondent Glenn Thrush reported that he received this email from the White House on the Minnesota attack: “The President has been and is continuing to be updated and we are monitoring [the] situation for now.” (HuffPost requested comment from the White House press office, but has not heard back.)


The president’s silence this week isn’t surprising. Dozens of U.S. mosques have been targeted with threats, vandalism or arson since the beginning of the year, and Trump has yet to offer a word of condolence or comfort to American Muslims, who are concerned about their place in society and the safety of their places of worship.


American Muslims were quick to note Trump’s silence on Twitter.

Quote:[/url]Imraan Siddiqi 

✔@imraansiddiqi
If a (predominantly white) church or other house of worship were firebombed over the weekend, Trump would've commented by now.
5:34 PM - Aug 7, 2017

Quote:[url=https://twitter.com/WajahatAli]Wajahat Ali 

✔@WajahatAli
Let's say someone yelled Allahu Akbar while throwing an IED bomb into a populated church in Minnesotta. How would President Trump respond?
12:54 PM - Aug 7, 2017

“President Trump has to date not expressed any significant opposition to Americans turning on Americans of the Islamic faith,” said Corey Saylor, who monitors Islamophobia for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Through his Muslims ban and comments from the campaign trail, he has instead painted the entire American Muslim community as suspect.”

(08-09-2017, 11:58 AM)GMDino Wrote: Understand that a real President...a real man...would have said "violence is never the answer" for ANY attack on US soil.

Sadly we have Trump instead.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-silence-minnesota-mosque-attack_us_59887a97e4b041356ec13af5

(08-10-2017, 11:40 AM)PhilHos Wrote: Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo, do people WANT Trump to respond? I'm confused. Anytime Trump speaks on ANYTHING, he's roundly criticized (many times, rightfully so), but here he's quiet and he's still criticized.

Personally, if he's not going to say the politically standard, trite statement usually given in these situations, I'd rather he not say anything. But, then again, I don't hate everything about Trump.

(08-10-2017, 11:57 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Silence is still better than Trump saying the bomber could have been his son.

(08-10-2017, 11:58 AM)GMDino Wrote: There is a pattern to Trump Speak ™

Good news?  He takes all the credit.

Bad News? He blames someone and usually calls them names.

Accusations against him? Fake news from unnamed sources...leaks are bad!

Accusations against someone he dislikes? Investigate! "Sources say" is okay!

Attack by a Muslim? Tweet about immigration ban!

Attack ON a Muslim? Silence.

Really they ONLY thing he won't tweet about is if a minority is harmed.  Whether that be a religious, sexual, or racial minority.

So while he (deservedly) gets a lot of flack about what he says his silence on specific things speaks volumes.

Let me add a lot of the criticism he gets is because he speaks SO poorly.  He knows very few words, rarely completes a sentence.

(08-10-2017, 12:01 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Dude, you could literally just repost that same list, but edit it for white people instead of Muslims, and racists instead of fake news... and it'd be our last President.

Every politician plays that game. You just have a hate boner for Trump, so you think that everything he does is unprecedented and uniquely awful. It's awful, sure, but hardly unique.

(08-10-2017, 12:03 PM)GMDino Wrote: Trump is a unique case.  the vast majority of the country understands that his way of "communication" is bad/faulty/awful.

I have plenty of example to base my views about Trump on.  If there are that many examples for another politicians feel free to start a thread about them.  

(08-10-2017, 12:06 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Never denied that, but saying essentially the same shit in a pretty speech, is still saying the same shit. Unless you think that polishing a turd is all the difference.

Politicians are politicians. They'll have targets and they'll have groups they don't care about, depending on who'll get them their votes and who'll put money in their pockets. Pretending this current one is any different than previous ones in that way is disingenuous at best.

(08-10-2017, 12:10 PM)GMDino Wrote: There is "political speak" and there is whatever it is that Trump does.

He's not prepared to handle the job he has, nor can he communicate in even the simplest way.  Which, by the way, is the only way he communicates.

Again, anyone who thinks he isn't worse than the vast majority of politicians is in the minority.  I don't feel the need to provide more examples and defend that stance.

And, really, NONE OF THAT has to do with a church being targeted and the POTUS not saying one word about it.

(08-10-2017, 12:20 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: You keep mentioning this as if I haven't agreed that Trump spews garbage from his mouth. Our point of contention is that I think other politicians end up at the same garbage point, but they just use political speak and prettier words and turns of phrase to make it sound elegant.

You have two cars street racing..
One's a rusty, molding PoS.
One's a really nice muscle car.

Both drivers are still in the wrong because street racing is illegal.
Just because something is done much nicer doesn't make it less wrong.

- - - - - - - - - -

If every POTUS was expected to say something about everything, then they'd never have time to do anything else. So they focus on the really big things, and the things that effects their voter base. That's not unique. It's politics.

Remember when the homeless white military veteran got beaten to death in Philadelphia by two black women and their four young children outside of a gas station? On video? You probably don't. The POTUS never said shit about it, heck, it was barely on the news.

But feeding into a lie about a "gentle giant" with their "hands up" who could have been his son? Oh, sure he made time for that, also made time to invite people who were rioting, looting, burning buildings, and assassinating police, to the White House... because he knew his voter base. Politicians.

The only difference is I think they're both awful, you somehow believe that your group's shit doesn't stink, thus you must feed your hatred towards one man to keep you distracted from your hypocrisy of blind support for your party.

(08-10-2017, 12:26 PM)GMDino Wrote: Trump tweets almost every day about the smallest of things that annoy him.

Obama is no longer president.

(08-10-2017, 12:34 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: I don't care if we're talking Trump, Obama, Bush. They all do/did the same shit. Trump just does it more hamfisted and idiotically childishly, and under a much larger microscope that is your directed hatred.