Authorities probe fire attacks on 4 NYC sites
NEW YORK (AP) -- While members of an Islamic cultural center gathered for a Sunday evening dinner, a Molotov cocktail hurled by an unknown assailant and made from a Starbucks bottle burst and shattered against the center's main entrance. Another was thrown at the sign for the center's school.
It was one of a string of suspected arson attacks that police were investigating on Monday as possible bias crimes and trying to determine whether the incidents were linked. No arrests have been made.
Structural damage to the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation was minimal, but some members of the center were emotionally shaken, the assistant imam said. About 80 worshippers were there when the firebomb was set off at 8:44 p.m., the third in the series of suspected arson attacks in Queens on Sunday night.
"We were very surprised," assistant Imam Maan Al-Sahlani said. "This has never happened here before."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ISLAMIC_CENTER_FIRE_ATTACK?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=
= new reply since forum marked as read
