Members of the Imams Council of Michigan gathered at the American Islamic Community Center in Madison Heights, which was the target of threats of death and violence on Sunday when the mosque received two voicemails with graphic and expletive-ridden threats against the Muslim community and the mosque itself.
A suspect, arrested on Tuesday, was arraigned in Oakland County District Court on Thursday. Christopher Andrew Lord, 35, is charged with one count of false threat of terrorism and using a computer to commit a crime, according to Oakland County prosecutors, CBS reported.
“We are grateful to the law enforcement for arresting the one who threatened this mosque on Sunday,” said Imam Sayed Al-Hussaini, the imam of the American Islamic Community Center, at a press conference on Thursday afternoon. “It’s not a threat against this mosque, and the building, but a threat to all people of faith, because we believe that all people, whether in the churches, in the synagogue, in the temple, in the mosque, should be safe.”
Imam Dawud Walid, a member of the Imams Council of Michigan and the executive director of Michigan’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in the press conference that he hopes Lord receives the maximum sentence that he could face, which he said would be 20 years in prison…