Gov. Mark Dayton called it an “act of terrorism.” It was.
The bombing at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington last Saturday did not cause any injuries or deaths, thankfully. However, acts of terrorism do not necessarily have to result in bloodshed to serve their vicious purpose, which is most of all to ignite the dark forces of fear, suspicion, hatred and blind retribution.
Like Bloomington, the St. Cloud area has a high percentage of Somali people. It’s important for all of us to condemn that bombing and to call it what it is – not vandalism, not hooligan hijinx – but a hate crime, an act of terrorism aimed at a community of people because of their color and their religion.
Let us hope the perpetrator(s) is arrested soon to face justice.
In the meantime, people are speaking out strongly against the disgusting crime.
This is what Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead had to say, referring to the six-year-old Islamic center in his city:
“It has grown to be an important part of our community going forward. And we’re happy to have them (Somalis) here. That said, when there is an attack on part of our community, there is an attack on our entire community.”
Anybody who has studied history – or even scratched its surface – should know such terrorist acts, which often start with acts of vandalism, can set the stage for further, more widespread outrages against human beings. In Nazi Germany, during a night called Kristallnacht, thugs were encouraged to smash windows and vandalize shops owned by Jews and to carry out other acts of mayhem, some resulting in the brutalization and deaths of Jewish people – or people who were assumed to be Jewish. It wasn’t too long after that Jews were forced into overcrowded ghettos followed by their being shipped like cattle to work camps, death camps.
That is why those who commit hate crimes have to be roundly condemned, and all humans should join together in solidarity against such despicable prejudices, which are often fueled by jokes, slanders, gossip and blatant untruths about people of another color or against anyone perceived as being “different” – the “other.”
Right here in the St. Cloud area, right under our noses, we sometimes hear snide remarks against Somalis, slanderous nastiness, cruel jokes and stories people swear are true – but are not. The best way to counter that witch’s brew of nastiness is to tell the slanderers, right on the spot, that their cruel remarks are not helpful in our efforts to achieve peace and harmony for all Americans.
There are close to 60,000 Somalis now living in Minnesota. What is greatly worrisome are the increases in anti-Muslim acts across the nation, including the vandalizing of Islamic cemeteries. We have a moral obligation to condemn such rot again and again and to work actively to stop it. Let’s show our Somali neighbors our support. One way to do that, in this case, is to donate money to help the Somalis in Bloomington repair the damage caused by the seriously misguided thug who bombed their center.
Go to the donation page at gofundme.com/support-dar-al-farooq-center.