09/14/2001
Associated Press/KING5.com

SEATTLE – An armed man tried to set fire to a mosque, fired a shot into the ground, then rammed his car into a utility pole before being arrested, police said.

The Islamic Idriss Mosque in the city's north end escaped damage, and the 53-year-old man from Snohomish County was listed in satisfactory condition early Friday at Harborview Medical Center, Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said.

It was the second arrest in the city involving threats against Muslims, Arabs and Americans of Middle Eastern descent in the city since terrorist attacks Tuesday.

Kerlikowske said at a news conference early Friday that police will offer extra security to mosques in the city.

At the Northgate Idris Mosque, a Muslim place of worship on the city's north end, Issa Toandeel had just finished a prayer session.

 "We smelled a gas smell. And we're checking our tanks because we thought that something was wrong. And then all of the sudden from the front of my car someone was trying to hide.

"And then he came out and he had a gun in his hand, a little revolver. And he has a little can of gasoline, and he was pouring gas all over my car," said Toandeel.

Police describe the suspect as a white male in his 50s and extremely intoxicated. He was driving an older model green Ford.

Toandeel says the suspect first threatened to shoot him and then actually pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger three times but all the gun did was click.

"He was trying to shoot one more time, but he was not aiming at me by then. He was just trying to see what was happening with the revolver, and then it really went off," said Toandeel.

Then the suspect ran to his car and tried driving away, Issa followed him in his gasoline soaked Cherokee.

The green Ford rammed into the Cherokee and then crashed into the light pole.

"He seemed to be very mad, which is like many people nowadays here and because of what happened," said Toandeel.

No one in the mosque was harmed, and police arrested the man nearby as he was driving away.

Malicious harassment, which can include realistic threats to harm someone on the basis of race or religion, carries a minimum penalty of three to nine months in jail.

The same mosque previously received at least one threatening phone call.

City police said Thursday they had received at least three other reports of harassment and threats directed at Muslims in which no arrests were reported:

– Earlier Tuesday, a taxicab dispatcher said the company had received three threatening calls, possibly from the same person, including the words, "Tell your Muslim drivers not to drive today."

- On Tuesday evening, a 40-year-old Seattle man was jailed after he reportedly stormed into a mosque and threatened to burn it down because of the terrorist attacks, police said. That man was being held for investigation of malicious harassment, a felony. According to a police report, he barged into the Southwest Seattle Islamic Center about 12 hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C.

He refused to remove his shoes when he entered, a violation of the sanctity of the house of worship, acted belligerent and "threatened that the mosque would be burned down," the report said.

– On Wednesday morning, drivers on the West Seattle viaduct reported seeing a handmade sign with a death threat against Palestinians hanging from a footbridge.

– On Wednesday afternoon, the Islamic Idriss Mosque received several anonymous phone calls ranging from obscenity to death threats.

Officials at the same mosque also said they had received many calls of support, and flowers from well-wishers were left before the episode Thursday night.

Some area churches offered safe haven and 24-hour security to Muslims. Members of the Church Council of Greater Seattle condemned threats against mosques and offered safety patrols.

Threats recorded on an answering machine at the Islamic Center of the Eastside in Bellevue included "You will all die," "Get out of this country," and "You will be treated like the Japanese were during Pearl Harbor," said the mosque president, who asked that his name not be used.

The Dar Alarqam Mosque in suburban Lynnwood, where vandals defaced a sign with black paint on Tuesday, was deluged Thursday with cards, flowers and visitors and received more than 100 voicemail messages of support.

"We came down to give our apologies for the response they have gotten," said Amy Dennis of Lynnwood, who brought her 10-year-old son Devon as she delivered a card. "We know that they felt the pain that we are feeling."

Nasser, a member of the mosque's governing board who asked that his last name not be published, said attendance at evening prayer services was down by about half since Tuesday, and none of the women and children who usually come have been there.

Community response in the last couple of days was more of "what we really expected from American people," he said.

"We are all in the same boat," Nasser said. "We are Americans, too."