Northeast Minneapolis mosque gets harassing and threatening phone calls

The Minneapolis Police Department has submitted a case file to the Hennepin County Attorney to consider charges against an individual who placed several harassing and threatening voicemails to the Dar Al-Qalam Islamic Center.

Over the weekend, the mosque on NE. Lowry Avenue received 14 calls over the weekend from a St. Cloud-area phone number with voicemails containing veiled threats and anti-Muslim slurs, mosque officials and police said.

In one instance, the caller sent a video link depicting the 2019 mosque massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, to a worshiper who had missed one of the calls, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) said.

“This is a clear intimidation and targeting of our mosque,” CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said during a news conference at the mosque Tuesday. “This is unacceptable and alarming to our community.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said his department is investigating, but no one has been arrested.

“We believe that crimes that target our houses of worship in this city, those crimes that are motivated by bias, are especially egregious, and it doesn’t matter if you’re not Muslim,” O’Hara said. “It’s an attack on the entire community in this city and all that we’re supposed to value as Americans.”

Hussein said he appreciated the quick response by Minneapolis police and other law enforcement, and called on the community to speak up against anti-Muslim behavior.

The voicemails come as part of a trend that has seen 33 attacks on mosques and Muslim institutions in Minnesota since 2021, the most in the nation, Hussein said.

In a different case, vandals this summer have caused more than $20,000 in damage to a former bank in St. Anthony that is poised to become home to a new Islamic-focused teen center.