Vigilance urged following second recent DC-area mosque threat

Vigilance is being urged following the second mosque threat in the Washington, DC and Baltimore area in the same month.

In mid-August, a mosque in Washington received a phone call with a bomb threat. Around two weeks later, at the end of August, a mosque in Baltimore was threatened.

On Thursday, while worshippers were at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, the mosque received a suspicious phone call in which the caller made a reference to the 2019 Christ Church, New Zealand mosque massacre. 

Following the threat, activities were cancelled for the rest of the day. However, attendance resumed for Friday prayers the next day.

Both threats are being investigated. It is unclear if they are related, though they appear to be part of a larger pattern of houses of worship being targeted across the US.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is urging mosques to be vigilant and increase their security.

"Of course, we're taking these seriously. We're asking mosque leaders to step up security," Zainab Chaudry, director of CAIR-Maryland, told The New Arab. She noted that mosques can apply for government funding for security and can take steps to make their buildings safer.

"We don't want our communities to live in fear or stop going to mosque. We want them to practice vigilance and report anything unusual," she said, adding that underreporting has been a challenge, often due to discomfort with law enforcement. "It's important for people to speak up."