Washington: For the second time in a month a mosque situated in southwest Missouri, a state of United States (US), was burned to the ground early Monday, media reports say.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said that the fire at the Islamic Society of Joplin was reported about 3:30 a.m. Monday. The sheriff’s department said that the building was a total loss. No injuries were reported and no charges have been filed.
Imam Lahmuddin, the spiritual leader of the mosque and was in the building until late Sunday, said he was “sad and shocked” by the fire.
“I’m still in front of the building looking at the damage and nothing can be saved,” Lahmuddin said in a telephone interview Monday.
“But since we are people of faith we just can remember that this is a thing that happened because God let it happen, and we have to be patient, particularly in the month of Ramadan, control our emotions, our anger.”
A blaze at the same building July 4 caused minor damage and was determined arson. No arrests were made and the FBI has offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to charges in that fire. The agency released video footage of what appeared to be a man starting the July blaze that did not cause extensive damage.
FBI spokeswoman Bridgett Patton said the agency is investigating the cause of the latest fire and whether or not it was also the result of arson.
Sharon Rhine, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said the center’s security cameras were burned in the Monday fire.
About 50 families belong to the Islamic Society of Joplin, which opened in 2007 as a mosque and community center. The FBI led an investigation in 2008 when the mosque’s sign was torched. That crime also remained unsolved.
The latest fire came a day after a gunman killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. The imam said it was a cause of great concern that both faiths had seemingly come under attack.
“I heard that yesterday, and this morning we see this happen in our place,” he said. “We are more fortunate that no one here got hurt in this incident.”
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