US mosques were on high alert on Friday after a terrorist attack on Muslim worshippers at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, overnight left at least 49 dead and 48 more injured.
Authorities in New York, Chicago, San Fransisco and Los Angeles announced plans to ramp up police presence around local mosques where many worshippers are headed for Friday prayers.
Sobia Siddiqui, the communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Houston chapter, said her organization has already received a flurry of calls from mosques and community members expressing safety concerns and fears of a copycat attack on US soil.
“We’ve been encouraging anyone who has contacted us to up their security and be vigilant and also pray for the victims in New Zealand because from this distance that’s all we can do,” Siddiqui said.
That caution was reiterated by Cair’s national executive director, Nihad Awad.
“In the wake of this tragedy, we urge mosques, Islamic schools and other community institutions in the United States and around the world to take stepped-up security precautions, particularly during times of communal prayer,” he said.
At a press conference in Washington, Awad urged American Muslims “not to abandon your mosques”. He also criticized Donald Trump’s noted lack of direct condemnation of white supremacy and what Awad described as the Trump administration’s “Islamophobic, white supremacist and racist” policies.
The Friday midday prayer, or Jummah, is traditionally a communal prayer participated in by practicing Muslims. It is thought likely the attackers in Christchurch planned their attack, which began around noon local time, to coincide with the attendance of Jummah worshipers.
“I’m not surprised at all that they were targeted on a Friday, and I do believe that it will affect the number possibly in masjids today,” Siddiqui said, using the Arabic word for mosques.
Speaking to the Guardian just a few hours before he was scheduled to lead Jummah prayer in Warren, Michigan, on Friday, Imam Dawud Walid said he was still working out exactly what he would say to an anxious and grieving congregation, but he was sure of two major themes.
“I want to give the community two messages,” Walid said. “We have to be vigilant and understand the times that we live in, but I also want to give them hope. We don’t need to be a community that’s living in perpetual fear or despair.”
Walid is also the executive director of the Michigan chapter of Cair, and a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council’s (MMCC) imams committee.
Walid’s optimism was shared by Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who posted in a tweet : “We must not live in fear. I will be at Jumu’ah today and I hope others will too. Jummah Mubarak.”
Inna lilahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. This is chilling news to wake up to. In the face of this horror, I’m mourning with, and holding our community extra close today.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 15, 2019
We must not live in fear. I will be at Jumu’ah today and I hope others will too. Jummah Mubarak.
Elsewhere on social media, Muslims from all over the US and the globe began sharing pictures from their mosques and Jummah prayers with the hashtag #MyMosque.
“Regardless of the best efforts of terrorists, we will continue to go to our mosques; we will continue to pray, and we will never live in fear,” said Eeman Abbasi, a community organizer, in a tweet encouraging Muslims to share the hashtag.
Friends, let’s use the hashtag #MyMosque today to share pictures of our Friday prayers, in memory of the NZ martyrs.
— eemi (@eemanabbasi) March 15, 2019
Regardless of the best efforts of terrorists, we will continue to go to our mosques; we will continue to pray, and we will never live in fear. https://t.co/RHuuhTCWZW
Walid and Siddiqui both said they see the attacks in the context of a climate of increasingly normalized hate and bigotry towards Muslims.
Meanwhile, Bob McKenzie, of the New America thinktank and the director of its Muslim Diaspora Initiative, said it should be pointed out in light of the attacks in New Zealand that his group has recorded a significant increase in anti-Muslim activities in America since late 2015, tracked in its specialist database.
Reuters contributed to this report.
• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day. In New Zealand, the crisis support service Lifeline can be reached on 0800 543 354. In Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Irish Republic, contact Samaritans on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
