Police confirm Minnesota mosque was attacked, FBI takes lead

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Someone apparently threw a bomb through the window of a suburban Minneapolis mosque Saturday as people were preparing for morning prayers, damaging a room but not causing any injuries, authorities said.

The FBI said investigators were looking for suspects after the blast that occurred about 5 a.m. at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, south of Minneapolis.

Worshippers managed to extinguish the blaze before firefighters arrived, according to a statement from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.

A witness reported seeing something being thrown at the imam's office window as about a dozen people gathered for morning prayers, said Asad Zaman, the society's director. Zaman described it as a firebombing, the Star Tribune reported.

One worshipper saw a pickup truck speeding away afterward, said Mohamed Omar, the center's executive director.

He said the mosque, which primarily serves people from the area's large Somali community, occasionally receives threatening calls and emails.

Richard Thornton, special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis Division, said during a Saturday afternoon news conference investigators have recovered components of the device to figure how it was put together. He said authorities also were searching for the perpetrators.

Trevin Miller, who lives across the street, said the explosion awakened him and felt the blast on his "insides."

Yasir Abdalrahman, a worshipper at the mosque, said the explosion was "unimaginable."

"We came to this country for the same reason everyone else came here: freedom to worship," Abdalrahman said. "And that freedom is under threat. Every other American should be insulted by this."

The mosque serves as a religious center and community organizing platform for Muslim activists and leaders in the area, according to the society. The group is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction.

A $10,000 reward also is being offered by the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The group said its national office is urging Islamic centers and mosques to step up security.

The local chapter's civil-rights director, Amir Malik, said the group hopes the reward will help authorities quickly apprehend the perpetrator of the "act of violence."

"If a bias motive is proven, this attack would represent another in a long list of hate incidents targeting Islamic institutions nationwide in recent months," Malik said.