Fire at Joplin mosque for second time this summer

Monday, August 6, 2012

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A mosque in southwest Missouri burned to the ground early Monday in the second fire to hit the Islamic center in little more than a month, officials said.

The fire at the Islamic Society of Joplin was reported about 3:30 a.m. Monday, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s department said the building was a total loss. No injuries were reported and no charges have been filed.

Imam Lahmuddin, who leads the mosque and was in the building until late Sunday, said he was “sad and shocked” by the fire.

“I’m still in front of the building looking at the damage and nothing can be saved,” Lahmuddin said in a telephone interview Monday. “But since we are people of faith we just can remember that this is a thing that happened because God let it happen, and we have to be patient, particularly in the month of Ramadan, control our emotions, our anger.”

A blaze at the same building July 4 caused minor damage and was determined arson. No arrests were made and the FBI has offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to charges in that fire. The agency released video footage of what appeared to be a man starting the July blaze that did not cause extensive damage.

FBI spokeswoman Bridgett Patton said the agency is investigating the cause of the latest fire and whether or not it was also the result of arson.

Sharon Rhine, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said the center’s security cameras were burned in the Monday fire.

About 50 families belong to the Islamic Society of Joplin, which opened in 2007 as a mosque and community center. The FBI led an investigation in 2008 when the mosque’s sign was torched. That crime also remained unsolved.

Lahmuddin, who has lived in Joplin for about four years, said several people were at the center late Sunday. He said despite the attacks, the center’s members have good relationships with residents and other churches. He said many are doctors at area hospitals.

The latest fire came a day after a gunman killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. The imam said it was a cause of great concern that both faiths had seemingly come under attack.

“I heard that yesterday, and this morning we see this happen in our place,” he said. “We are more fortunate that no one here got hurt in this incident.”

More like this story

spelchek 9 months, 2 weeks ago

What a terrible traged......LOOK GOLF IS ON!!!

MO4LIFE 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Do u always have to be so ignorant about things. This is no different than if it was your CHURCH you would be greatly offended by the comment that you made. That is JUST PLAIN OLD INGNORANCE!!!!!!!!!

Sequoia 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Don't feed the troll.

spelchek 9 months, 2 weeks ago

asb is an angry person filled with rage (and apparently a litany of names to call people), do not practice what is taught by this hypocrite. This crime juxtaposed to a journalist losing their life because they drew a picture of the prophet Mohamed is miniscule. Did I miss the subsequent articles of Muslims pouring out of mosques to protest the violence? Where is the outrage over their treatment of women? Continue making yourselves feel better by chastising others who don't candy coat what they see around them. Lastly, someone show me where I condoned the behavior of burning Mosques.

asb 9 months, 2 weeks ago

You didn't condone it, you made fun of it. Extremists' acts are deplorable, not entertainment, whether American cracker or Islamist cracker; both are done out of hatred and fear generated by skilled PR types to move an agenda, you only help them. I have ample outrage over extremists' treatment of women, whether by the jihadist stoners (oxymoroun anyone) or the baptists saying the gals should walk behind their man, it's all bad.

xhepera 9 months, 2 weeks ago

No, it's not "just plain old ignorance." It is the considered and willful wickedness that is at the heart of so much that is wrong with this country and with the world. We will always have filth such as this, and it will always receive its just reward eventually. Bitter souls with no compassion are like diseases on the body of humanity. But essential humanity always triumphs in the end.

JCLifer 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Hey. at least we don't have thousands dancing in the streets like the Muslims were doing after 9/11.

asb 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Pay attention Hank, we're very outnumbered here and we need you focused. This refers to the Joplin Mosque burning, not the Sikh killings. There is clearly a connection, in that the shooter and burners are fools with tiny brains who've been brainwashed by FRightwing fear mongering. This is how hate gets the best of us by the least of us.

JCLifer 9 months, 2 weeks ago

I wondered wth he was talking about.

connor 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Mean while how many churches are burned and Christians murdered, forced into Muslim slave-marriages and beaten daily in Egypt? As far as making a difference Joplin might as well be Egypt for those of us around here so your sympathy should run just as strong to either place and both faiths. Yet interestingly it never seems to.

We would see church burnings in other Middle Eastern countries as well, except of course those other Muslim nations don't allow churches to be built. On those scores all you hear from libs is silence.

Liberal Progressive Hypocrisy number 972 BTW.

JMO 9 months, 1 week ago

conner, this isn't Egypt. It's America. In Egypt, Egyptians can do whatever they want, it's their country. The don't have our laws or our constitution. They can refuse to allow Christians to build churches, to worship or to live there. It's Egypt and it's NOT America. In the USA, we have this little thing called freedom. That is for everyone, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Pagans, Athiests.... They are supposed to be free to worship or not, and gather or not, without fear. To burn a Mosque is no better than burning Temple or a Church.

We must pay attention to the hate growing in OUR country and make IT stop. We can't control what other countries do, but we can seek to be better than that.

JCLifer 9 months, 1 week ago

What about Israel? You gonna support letting them do what they want too?

JMO 9 months, 1 week ago

I have no idea what you are talking about, but in Israel, they can make their own laws, as can England, Greece, Canada or any other country. Did I say I support such actions as conner described? No. We can disagree with them. We can refuse to aid them. We can condemn, can ask, even demand, change. But in the end, their country, their law. The US was built on an ideal of freedom from persecution. In the US, freedom should apply to all. If it doesn't, then it isn't freedom. If we defend freedom of religion for only a few in this country, it becomes a privilege afforded only to some. That's not the American ideal.

connor 9 months, 1 week ago

Unless you live there Joplin is about as much your community as Egypt. You have more in common with the Joplin Community and share a state, that's about it. As for laws I have not read where anyone is suggesting a law wasn't broken, however you seem quick to color this as a hate crime or an anti-muslim thing. For all we know someone maybe angry because their property was condemned to allow social engineered government equality to give a permit to the Muslims to build a mosque so they can celebrate their diversity.

My point is your sympathy, like pretty much all liberals is always reserved for non-Christians. Which means it isn't sympathy but your own form of hate crime.

JMO 9 months, 1 week ago

Perhaps YOU think of a town barely 200 miles away as a foreign country, but I don't. I think of them as my fellow American's and my neighbors. I may not be a community member, but I know people there. I suppose I shouldn't have spent any more time, money and effort worrying about rebuilding from the tornado than I did contributing to the Japanese tsunami. I'm sorry you have so little national pride or concern. I do. I'm concerned about our country as a whole. I'm concerned about our citizens. ALL of them. And I would be just as outraged if this was a Christian church. As I said before, but you didn't listen or didn't care...Hate is always wrong.

JMO 9 months, 1 week ago

And by the way, I never said this was a hate crime at all. I merely responded to your post about other countries not being tolerant. Furthermore, as a Christian, I resent your remark that my sympathies are reserved for non-Christians! Any REAL Christian is concerned for all of their fellow men and women. Not just members of their own denomination.

connor 9 months, 1 week ago

So now you wish to argue that it is National Pride and not just some sense of community. You need to make a choice what particular line you wish to draw. First it was community, except Joplin isn't your community but it is in the same country. When I point out it isn't your community then all of a sudden I have no National pride? Yet you are the one constantly setting (adjustable) boundaries for your sympathy, not I.

Resent away you are the one clearly showing your concern has boundaries.

BubbaD 9 months, 1 week ago

One of the chief ways people attempt to deceive others is to reduce everything to an either/or proposition. In this case, it could easily be both and each would be a reasonable motivation.

JMO 9 months, 1 week ago

What???? Conner, I don't know what the heck you are responding to, but it sure isn't anything I've said. Have you even read my prior posts? Not a single word in ANY of them has said anything about community v. country. YOU are the only one doing that. What I've said, EVERY time, is we can't control other countries laws or the actions of their people, but at home - in America - we can and should uphold the ideals our country was based upon.

As you clearly aren't capable of having a reasonable discussion or even reading what you are responding to, I'm done.

JCLifer 9 months, 1 week ago

Amen! Follow the Constitution!

viktorkowski 9 months, 2 weeks ago

they have surveillance footage of the suspect. If it was a member he would of been turned in by now.

viktorkowski 9 months, 2 weeks ago

the picture is clear enough to run through facial recognition

asb 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Yes, I'm the one with race and religion issues, and as far as I know, FRightwing is mine, not the DNC's, but I'll give them credit if you show me prior use. And as far as putting words in your mouths, no, sorry, those are all your own.

Mr_Grimm 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Sounds Crppy to me. The leader sounds pretty much like any TRUE believer of faith. Its crp it happened and we need to forgive instead of hate and leave the rest to god. We could use more GOOD religions, whether people believe in them or not it leads to being a better person if followed properly.

online_editor 9 months, 2 weeks ago

Please keep comments focused on issues related to the article, and avoid personal attacks on forum participants. Thank you. --Rick Brown, online editor, News Tribune

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