Muslims Ask for Protection as Ramadan Approaches
Monday, Aug 9, 2010 | Updated 5:29 PM EST
Dan Lee NBC Connecticut
Muslim leaders in Connecticut are asking police to ensure that they can worship without being harassed after a group was confronted on Friday.
Worshipers at the Masjid An-Noor mosque in Bridgeport were confronted by about a dozen members of Texas-based Operation Save America last Friday and the protesters left after about an hour.
"This is a war in America and we are taking it to the mosques around the country," Flip Benham, of Dallas, Texas, organizer of the protest, said, yelling at the worshipers with a bullhorn, the Connecticut Post reports.
Wednesday is the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan and Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of the Connecticut office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the protest has Muslims in the state concerned.
Dhaouadi says he doesn't want to see worshipers caught in situations where things might escalate.
Operation Save America posted a response on its Web site calling articles about the protest “lies.”
“As much as we know that Islam is an enemy of Christianity and America, we also desire with all of our hearts to see men and women saved from this terrible lie,” the organization posted online.
“Politicians and pundits are playing the fear-mongering game,” said James Jones, president of the Masjid al-Islam mosque in New Haven told the New Haven Register.
The Islamic community in Connecticut is estimated at between 100,000 and 120,000 people.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut
Posted Monday, Aug 9, 2010 - 8:57 AM EST
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