On the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a Tempe imam said three men entered the downtown Tempe mosque and forcefully questioned him about his practices before cursing at him.

"It was fortunate no one was there. These guys came with the intention to insult, attack maybe, do whatever they wanted to do, and weren't afraid of any authority," said Mohammed AbuHannoud, civil rights coordinator for the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

According to Ahmed Shqeirat, the imam at the Islamic Community Center of Tempe, one of the three men entered the prayer hall on the second floor of the mosque at about 3:30 p.m. and asked Shqeirat what he hid in the room. The man was asked to remove his shoes before entering the prayer hall, Shqeirat said, but the man repeated his question while the other two men with him laughed....

He said he told the man who questioned him that he could call for an appointment if he wanted a tour, but then the man began cursing at him and making profane hand gestures.


The men continued cursing before leaving and making negative comments about Muslim children passing by, Shqeirat said. [Link]