Leaders of Watauga Mosque fearful after threatening voicemail
Watauga - Watauga police are investigating an expletive-filled phone message threatening to kill members of a local mosque.
The latest message getting attention at Masjid Al-Sahaabah begins like this:
“F**k you, f**k Muhammad, f**k Islam. This is America. If you don't like the way we do s**t, get the f**k out.”
Local Muslim leaders say mosques get hateful phone calls weekly.
“We get the expletive phone calls, people call and say screw you Muslims, and they hang up,” said Vincent Simon, a member of the mosque.
But the messages haven’t been this extreme:
“We'll start just cutting off the heads of all of you m*******rs. Huh? How would you like that? Maybe we need another Christian crusade, which I think we do.
“When he started talking about chopping off people's heads and launching a crusade against Muslims, that's when it started to get scary because that's an actionable threat,” said Alia Salem, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
In the voicemail, the caller identifies himself as an army veteran and a Christian.
“I'm a Christian, I'm gonna tell you, I'm your f***ing enemy. I hate you, and I will never be your f**kin' friend.
“I want to be very clear that the Muslim community has no animosity towards the Christian community, but we do ask the Christian community stand up against this kind of hatred. This does not speak for the vast majority of Christians,” said Salem.
Mosque members say the message was originally left on July 30th, but they didn’t check it until Saturday and heard this:
“We will cut all your heads off, you understand me? All of you.”
That’s when mosque leaders called police and the local FBI Office. Watauga Police say they are investigating, but wouldn’t go so far as to call the voicemail a direct threat.
Local Muslims say they have a message of their own.
“Come down to the masjid and visit and meet Muslims and people, and talk to us, and see what's going on. We're just normal people who want to worship, practice our first amendment, worship freely without threat of violence,” said Simon.
Salem says the call came from a local number and it’s the fourth threat so far this year to DFW mosques that was serious enough to report to police.