Two Southern California mosques have received threatening letters that say President-elect Donald Trump will "cleanse" the country of Muslims, prompting calls for increased protection from local law enforcement.The letter, signed "Americans for a Better Way," was sent to the Long Beach Islamic Center and the Islamic Center of Claremont on Wednesday, according to the L.A. Times. The Evergreen Islamic Center up in San Jose received the same letter on Friday. In it, the writer denigrated Muslims and praises the president-elect, saying Trump will do to Muslims what "Hitler did to the jews [sic]." Both the Los Angeles and San Francisco chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations have called on local law enforcement to step up their protection of local mosques.
"This hate campaign targeting California houses of worship must be investigated as an act of religious intimidation, and our state's leaders should speak out against the growing anti-Muslim bigotry that leads to such incidents," CAIR-LA's executive director Hussam Ayloush said in a statement on Saturday.
Across the nation, there has been a spike in the reports of hate crime ever since Donald Trump won the election. Trump ran a campaign that used overtly racist rhetoric and called for a ban on Muslims entering the country, or at the very least a registry of Muslims entering the country.
"While he might say he's not responsible, and I respect that, I remind President-elect Trump that he has a responsibility to act as a president for all Americans," said Ayloush.
In the wake of these chilling reports, L.A.'s law enforcement leaders have vowed to crack down on hate crimes. "Acts of hate tear at the fabric of who we are as a nation, and we want to send a strong message that no one should be reluctant or afraid to report a hate crime," said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer in a statement. "None of us is ever going to re-victimize someone who is either a victim or a witness of a hate crime." On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors passed a motion that provided guidelines to law enforcement agencies on how to deal with hate crimes.
In August, the Orange County Human Relations Commission released a report that said the number of hate incidents against Muslims (or those perceived to be Muslim) saw a three-fold spike in 2015 across Orange County. An Agoura man that owned a large cache of weapons was arrested last month for making threats against the Islamic Center of Southern California.
