MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) — The American Islamic Community Center in Madison Heights received two threatening voicemails that law enforcement is now investigating as a hate crime.
The calls came just two minutes apart and contained explicit death threats and demands that worshippers leave the country, according to Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-Michigan.
Watch Faraz Javed's video report below:
The first call arrived at 3:46 p.m. Sunday and threatened to kill congregation members. The second escalated with promises of violence. Some of what was on the voicemails is below:
"You're a ******* ISIS. You're a ******* piece of trash. I'm coming for you."
"Get the **** out of my country before it's too late."
"We're going to come, and we're going to come strong. We're going to get rid of you."
"I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill your people."
"You have a right, but you don't have a right in my country. You ******* terrorist Islamic ***** **."
Walid said the threats must be taken seriously given the current political climate, pointing to a recent attack in San Diego.
"I think these are actual threats. Tone matters and words matter too. And these are hate-filled lace messages," Walid said. "Given this current political climate, and in particular what happened a little over a month ago in which there were three Muslims that were killed at a mosque in San Diego, we take such threats extremely serious."
The center, which also serves as a mosque, has faced hatred before. During a past expansion project, federal authorities intervened when the community faced organized opposition at a zoning hearing.
"I was there, present at the zoning hearing, and there was a couple of hundred people outside who were chanting slurs and making threats against mosque attendees. And I was told, as an African American, to go home. Some of us were spat upon," Walid said.
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Walid drew a clear legal distinction between protected speech and criminal threats.
"There's a difference between disagreeing with Muslims and Islam. Someone could even insult the religion itself or its sacred figures. But once anyone talks about killing people or wiping out an entire group of people based upon religion, then that's genocidal and that's illegal," Walid said.
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Walid called on law enforcement at every level to act.
"We would like to see local, state and federal law enforcement use all of their tools to catch this perpetrator and to charge them to the furthest extent of the law, which includes hate crime," Walid said.
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The Madison Heights Police Department is investigating. CAIR-Michigan is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call police immediately.
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