A national Muslim civil-rights group is demanding a hate-crime probe into what the Islamic Center of Charlotte this week called a direct threat to the mosque.
A caller Tuesday made a reference to 9/11 and “terrorists,” and could be heard saying in an audio recording of the call, “I’ll blow you harder than 9/11,” The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
The caller rambled on despite being told of the recording, but he was direct in his threat against the center, spokesman Jibril Hough said.
When the Observer called a phone number linked to the call, a man who answered said a 14-year-old family friend in his office “did something stupid” by calling the Islamic Center.
The man, who identified himself only as “Dave,” said the call to the center “was inappropriate” but that he didn’t believe the 14-year-old “made any type of threat.”
The man soon texted the Observer an apology related to what happened.
“I would like the center to know it was very inappropriate,” the man texted, “and that it will be made known to any parties involved it absolutely will never happen again.
Hough said that after the man texted the apology to the Observer, the mosque received a call from the same South Carolina phone number. This time, there was only silence on the other end, he said.
On Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on state and federal law enforcement to investigate the call as a hate crime.
“If the caller has indeed apologized for his actions, that is a welcome first step,” CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchel said in a statement. “But this person must also face accountability for violating the law just like anyone else who threatens a house of worship.”
The group’s demand came the same day a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department spokesman said CMPD won’t pursue criminal charges in the case.
“CMPD detectives completed a thorough threat assessment after this call was received into 911,” spokesman Mike Allinger said in an email to the Observer. “The investigation concluded that the verbiage communicated during the call did not rise to a criminal level.”
Hough said CMPD’s conclusion “is more of the same,” when the mosque reports an apparent threat. “Makes you wonder what does rise to a criminal level, if this doe not,” he said.
Hough said he intends to contact CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings, adding. “I would like to invite (CMPD leaders) to our community to discuss what does rise to a criminal level.”