The FBI is investigating a threatening e-mail sent to a Clifton mosque that was the target of a pipe bomb attack almost five years ago.
The e-mail was sent Saturday from an anonymous Yahoo account to the Islamic Association of Cincinnati, which oversees the mosque. “You should know that you are not wanted in Cincinnati,” the e-mail states. “We don’t want you here. Mohammad is a joke. Go back to your desert. Beware. We may just declare jihad on you.”
Officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that although the e-mail does not contain a direct threat, it is a concern because of the previous attack on the mosque and because of growing animosity toward Muslims in the decade since the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
The previous attack on the mosque occurred on the evening of Dec. 20, 2005, when two pipe bombs detonated near the entrance to the mosque. The blasts damaged the wooden door and blew out windows, but no one was hurt.
At least two other threats have been made against the mosque in the years since the bombing. One was a threatening phone call and the other involved a car full of men who yelled that they were “going to bomb this place.”